Climate
change: Netherlands on brink of banning sale of petrol-fuelled cars
'We
need to phase out CO2 emissions and we need to change our pattern of
using fossil fuels if we want to save the Earth,' says a Dutch Labour
Party member
Jess Staufenberg
11 hours ago
Europe appears
poised to continue its move towards cutting fossil fuel use as the
Netherlands joins a host of nations looking to pass innovative green
energy laws.
The Dutch government
has set a date for parliament to host a roundtable discussion that
could see the sale of petrol- and diesel-fuelled cars banned by 2025.
If the measures
proposed by the Labour Party in March are finally passed, it would
join Norway and Denmark in making a concerted move to develop its
electric car industry.
It comes after
Germany saw all of its power supplied by renewable energies such as
solar and wind power on one day in May as the economic powerhouse
continues to phase out nuclear energy and fossil fuels.
And outside Europe,
both India and China have demanded that citizens use their cars on
alternate days only to reduce the exhaust fume production which is
causing serious health problems for the populations of both nations.
The
consensus-oriented parties of the Netherlands are set to consider a
total ban on petrol and diesel cars in a debate on 13 October.
Richard Smokers,
principle adviser in sustainable transport at the Dutch renewable
technology company TNO, said the Dutch government was committed to
meeting the Paris climate change agreement to reduce greenhouse
emissions to 80 per cent less than the 1990 level. The plan requires
the majority of passenger cars to be run on CO2-free energy by 2050.
"Dutch cities
still have some problems to meet existing EU air quality standards
and have formulated ambitions to improve air quality beyond these
standards," he told The Independent, adding that the government
had at the same time been reluctant to implement strict policies on
the environment.
"The current
government embraces long term targets and strives at meeting EU
requirements, but is hesistant about proposing 'strong' policy
measures.
"Instead it
prefers to facilitate and stimulate initiatives from stakeholders in
society."
If the law to ban
the sale of new fossil-fuel cars by 2025 passes, a significant move
will have been made towards phasing out all petrol and diesel cars by
2035, added Dr Smokers.
Climate change
protests around the world
His words come after
Jan Vos, a member of the country's Labour Party, hailed the success
of the proposed ban in passing through the Netherland's lower
parliament.
"We need to
phase out CO2 emissions and we need to change our pattern of using
fossil fuels if we want to save the Earth," he told media site
Yale Climate Connections. He added that electric cars needed to be
affordable.
"Transportation
with your own car shouldn't be something that only rich people can
afford."
But a spokesperson
for the Netherland's Department for Climate, Air and Energy said the
law was not guaranteed to pass after discussions are resumed in
October.
"The proposal
is being considered, but there is still opposition to it," they
told The Independent.
According to Quartz,
sales of electric cars have surged in the Netherlands with an
all-time high last December. Meanwhile, the country has one of the
lowest levels of CO2 emissions from new cars in the European Union.
Elsewhere in Europe,
Norway has hit its target of selling 50,000 electric cars three years
ahead of its own target, in part owing to strong financial incentives
to purchase the more environmentally friendly model.
Electric vehicles
have been exempted from VAT and purchase tax, which would otherwise
add 50 per cent to the cost of the vehicle, under new Norwegian laws.
Denmark, meanwhile,
produced so much electricity from wind power in July last year that
it was able to sell its excess to Germany, Norway and Sweden.
In India, Delhi was
dubbed the equivalent of "living in a gas chamber" by its
chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Similar criticism has been levelled
at major Chinese cities, with Beijing set to double the number of air
monitoring stations to assess the city's air quality.
Meanwhile in the UK,
Theresa May has closed the Department for Energy and Climate Change
and merged it into a new Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy.
One point of concern
for the Netherlands will be ensuring the current design of electric
cars can be adequately scaled-up for densely populated urban
environments, warned Dr Smokers.
"I think that
living labs and other large scale experiments in the coming two
decades will be needed to find out how we can tackle this challenge,"
he said
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