Debate: Strengthening the COemission performance targets for new heavy-duty vehicles
Date: TUESDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 2023
Speaker: Wopke Hoekstra
Language: EN

Of course, at the same time, we are discussing this challenge in a climate emergency and that asks for responsibility in all of our choices. Climate change is unfortunately happening much faster than we feared, and it is causing damage all across Europe, and also all across all the corners of the world. And we have a new sad record, with 2023 as the warmest year on record as was the same, by the way, for 2022.  Of course, we discuss climate files like this one with the binding goals of our European climate law in mind. We all know the targets: we must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, and we need to reach climate neutrality by 2050. And I’m going to say it again, it is this Parliament that has championed these targets for all the right reasons.  To reach those targets, and the rapporteur just said it, all sectors must do their share and transport is not and cannot be an exception. In fact, transport requires special attention because it is responsible for almost one quarter of European CO2 emissions. And interestingly enough, for a long time it was the only sector where emissions were rising. So we must move to zero emission transport on our highways and in our cities. There simply is no other way forward.  But I would also like to highlight the other side of the coin: the opportunity that the shift to zero emission transport actually brings. European truck makers and bus makers can be global leaders if we set the right framework for them to invest in what I think are the technologies of the future. In a competition for electric mobility with China, for example, stagnation is not and cannot be the answer – the ramping up of key technologies in Europe is.  So ramping up the supply of European electric trucks and buses cuts our dependence on fossil fuels from volatile countries. Climate policy is, you could say, security policy. And zero emission mobility can be affordable mobility; if more zero emission trucks and bus models come to the market, then simply the prices will go down.  In order to reap these opportunities, we must give European industry the one thing that it wants from us as politicians, and that is clarity. Because that means investment certainty and it means stability. If companies then embark on the clean mobility journey, they need a dot on the horizon to the journey towards.  I am glad that the EP report confirms the ambition of the Commission on many issues, but I would like to address one specific issue that has become part of this debate. I very much understand the desire – and it is a desire across this House – to find a way that a move to zero emission transport. We do it in a way that is workable for our companies and our citizens. That is also what I want to do, because we have to take our people and our businesses along, and I do want to help in finding the way. And yet, in all openness, I do not think that to include a so-called carbon correction factor in our rules is the right way forward.  Then the idea would be to give truck makers a compliance bonus for making new trucks if Member States ensure the supply of, for example, e-fuels. Again, of course, I fully see the importance of innovative fuels, but we need them for the existing fleet before customers can switch to new zero-emission vehicles under this law. And mostly we need them for hard-to-abate sectors like maritime and aviation. That is where we need these type of fuels. I doubt that a carbon correction factor for new trucks gets us broad support for zero-emission transport. That was said before – maybe with even more passion than I am doing it – that virtually all truck makers, and all truck makers I have been talking, to say that they do not favour this approach. They would face penalties if Member States fall behind in existing renewable energy targets on fuels, and there is no incentive to overachieve on those targets. And generally we should be careful not to create artificial markets for new fuels in road transport.  Ladies and gentlemen, our proposal, especially on the 2040 target, is enough for all likely fuel developments. The Commission can reflect on market developments in a spirit of technological openness. We can do this in the review of this law in 2027, and I hope that Members of Parliament can take this into account in their votes later today.  Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the shift to zero emission trucks goes at the heart of the industrial transformation that we have ahead of us. Zero-emission buses change the daily lives of citizens taking public transport in cities, but, of course, also in the countryside. It generates passions. That is normal. So let us have a proper debate on all the various aspects going forward. And finally, let me once again thank the rapporteur, his team, for all his good and hard work.