New EU Climate Commissioner also wants to enforce ICE phase-out

The EU is sticking to its current plan to decarbonise the transport sector. After the new Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikosta, designated Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra also said he favours the agreed timetable for phasing out combustion engines in the European Union.

wopke hoekstra eu klimakommissar 2024 — Image: EP

After Apostolos Tzitzikostas declared earlier this week that he wanted to stick to the EU’s plan to ban new registrations of ICEs from 2035, he is now backed by the new Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra. The Dutch EPP politician also favours keeping to the agreed timetable. He said this at his hearing in Parliament.

The insistence on the current roadmap applies to the target year 2035 and concerns the interim CO2 targets for cars in 2025, which Hoekstra also wants to maintain. The designated Climate Commissioner is also against revising the law in advance. This is because the priority is “to ensure predictability for industry.” At the same time, Hoekstras promised to do his utmost to create a fair economic environment for the car, battery and environmental industries in the EU and to promote the expansion of the infrastructure for charging cars and investments in the electricity grid. At the hearing, he also spoke out against revising the biofuels framework and said he wanted to focus on electrification instead.

In an initial reaction, Transport & Environment (T&E) praised the new climate commissioner’s position and spoke of a newfound “clarity.” T&E calls on car manufacturers to “recall their lobbyists […] and refocus on building the affordable EVs Europe needs.”

For context: Wopke Hoekstra is a member of the political conservatives organised at EU level in the European People’s Party (EPP). Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas also belong to the EPP.

In her first term of office, von der Leyen drew up the ‘Green Deal,’ which includes, among other things, the so-called ‘combustion engine phase-out.’ From 2035, only cars that do not emit CO2 may be registered in the EU. That means combustion engines are not directly banned but de facto prohibited. To secure a majority for a second term in office, von der Leyen had called for an exemption for combustion engines that are demonstrably only fuelled and operated with e-fuels – such vehicles can also be newly registered after 2035.

x.com, europarl.europa.eu, x.com (Transport & Environment)