The European Union voted on Tuesday to approve a plan to ban new gas car sales by 2035, following in the footsteps of U.S. states California, New York and Oregon (via Yahoo News).
Some European legislators criticized the plan, saying it could be harmful to the continent’s auto industry. Still, a majority said the plan was actually a way to get ahead of the coming transition to electric vehicles, ultimately benefitting the region’s automakers.
“These targets create clarity for the car industry and stimulate innovation and investments for car manufacturers,” said Netherlands-based European Parliament member Jan Huitema. Huitema also pointed to lowered consumer fuel costs as a benefit of the plan.
The news was also picked up and reshared by California Governor @Gavin Newsom, who tweeted the story on Wednesday with the caption, “As California goes, so goes the world!”
California was the first of many U.S. states and countries to officially pass the 2035 gas car sales ban, with Canada also recently proposing similar legislation.
Still, some European-based climate activists have criticized the plan for being too slow to cut emissions, and thus won’t meet the goals set by the continent’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to cut emissions in half by 2030.
“Banning new oil-burning cars is the right thing to do, but a 2035 phase-out is much too late to limit global heating to 1.5°C and keeps us locked into oil dependency that bankrolls wars and hurts peoples’ pockets at the pump,” said Greenpeace EU Transport Campaigner Lorelei Limousin.
Tesla Model Y is the Best-Selling Car in Europe for Second Straight Month https://t.co/3RNSXa2XZZ
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) January 18, 2023