Carmakers and governments responsible for car emissions limits dilemma - opinion

German carmakers are the main culprits behind the problems with emissions, writes Nikolaus Doll in an opinion piece for Die Welt. “Not all, but important companies have lied, deceived and in the end will not manage to comply with the future limit,” Doll writes, referring to the 2021 EU car fleet CO₂ emissions limit. However, the German and EU governments are also at fault, Doll adds. “They regularly introduced new ambitious targets but did not worry about whether and how these were reached.” The federal government has created additional uncertainty by not yet making a decision on hardware retrofitting for older diesel cars, he points out. “Nobody knows what a diesel will be worth in a couple of months and where driving bans loom.”

Find the opinion piece in German here.

Find background in the news piece German government struggles to find common position on new EU climate targets for cars, and the article German environment ministry pushes for tougher EU car emission rules.