Premier of VW home state sceptical of federal environment minister’s plans for more ambitious car CO₂ limits

The European Commission’s proposal on limiting average CO₂ emissions from new cars is already ambitious, and the German government should not push for even stricter limits, Stephan Weil (SPD), premier of carmaker Volkswagen’s home state of Lower Saxony, said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “I can only strongly warn against further tightening [the EU proposal],” said Weil. Environment minister Svenja Schulze is urging more ambitious limits at EU level. A transition to e-mobility will lead to a drop in employment in the auto industry, Weil said, adding that this structural change is inevitable. “However, if you set too high demands too fast and overwhelm the whole system, then you will see that larger parts of the industry end up in serious trouble. We absolutely must avoid that,” he said. While cars have become more efficient, emissions from the transport sector have hardly changed since 1990, also because the number of cars increased and they became bigger. “That must change,” said Weil.

Read the interview (behind paywall) in German here.

For background, read the factsheet Dieselgate forces VW to embrace green mobility and the article German environment ministry pushes for tougher EU car emission rules.