“Everyone in a different direction”

German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel rejects blanket bans for heavily polluting cars in inner cities in order to bring down unlawfully high nitrogen oxide (NO_x) values, Markus Balser and Michael Bauchmüller write in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Gabriel’s remarks about doing “more than discussing new bans every other year” come after a regulatory draft from fellow Social Democrat Barbara Hendrick’s environment ministry emerged over the weekend that proposes allowing municipalities to ban certain cars in inner cities, the authors explain. “That doesn’t look like backing up a party colleague,” Balser and Bauchmüller write. Gabriel instead argues for electrifying public vehicles, an alternative that has also been suggested by conservative transport minister Alexander Dobrindt.

Read the article in German here.