German car manufacturers willing to accept tougher EU targets

According to a report by Spiegel, a turnaround of German car manufacturers regarding a planned tightening of EU climate targets is emerging. Especially with the Corona crisis, German manufacturers had actually rejected stricter regulations from Brussels. As the news magazine now claims to have learned, the manufacturers are supposed to be ready to give up their resistance to the stricter CO2 regulations envisaged by the "Green Deal" pushed by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It is planned to reach a basic agreement among OEMs and suppliers on a fundamental approval at a board meeting of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) next week.

"We want to be part of the solution," says the draft according to Spiegel. The "ambitious" climate targets for 2030 are "necessary and correct," and it is "sensible that the EU regularly reviews the climate targets within the framework of the Green Deal," it is supposed to continue. According to the guidelines, the plan would be to reduce CO2 emissions by 55 percent compared to the reference year by 2030. Previously, only 40 percent was set as the target, which environmentalists and climate scientists consider too little to achieve the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times.