EU Parliament Steps It Up: 60% Carbon Emissions Cut By 2030 Proposed

The EU Parliament voted this week, on October 6, to strongly improve its 2030 climate target. The proposal that was voted through was to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2030 rather than 40% by 2030. Among other things, as BloombergNEF’s Colin Mckerracher states, the majority of new car sales would need to be electric by the end of the decade to meet this target.

If this passes, the majority of cars in Europe will have to be electric in just over 9 years.

BNEF analysis put it at around 58% of sales needing to be plug-ins by 2030 to hit a 50% reduction target.
60% would mean much higher again.
https://t.co/DuY9GYsazs

— Colin Mckerracher (@colinmckerrache) October 7, 2020

The vote pushing the proposal forward was 352–326. “The text will now be forwarded to the EU Council of Ministers representing the EU’s 27 member states for final approval. The EU’s objective is to wrap up negotiations by the end of the year.”

This is so far beyond what the United States is doing that it may as well be on another planet. The EU has surpassed China in becoming the global leader on electrification of transport (with approximately 10% of new passenger vehicle sales being plug-in vehicles in 2020 in Europe), and this will put Europe even further ahead. As noted in that tweet above, BloombergNEF estimates that 58% of new car sales in Europe will be plugin cars by 2030 with a target to cut CO2 emissions by 50% by then. A 60% cut means an even higher plug-in vehicle market share. Others have an even more optimistic expectation for EV market share by 2030.

Lower CO2 emissions also mean less air pollution overall, which means tremendously better health for residents of Europe. The financial savings from much better health, less cancer, less heart disease, less asthma, and healthier and safer kids would crate large economic boons for Europe over time.

We did it! 60% did win! Now we take the climate policy to a higher level! Thank you EP for givning me that mandate. @TheProgressives pic.twitter.com/ZzlSnwoDjc

— Jytte Guteland (@JytteGuteland) October 7, 2020

Naturally, a faster shift to renewable energy and electric vehicles would also create numerous jobs in solar panel installation and production, wind turbine installation and production, electric vehicle production, battery mineral mining, battery production, and other green economy sectors. In net, strong climate action routinely creates more jobs in net because clean technologies have higher labor involvement while benefiting from lower or no fuel costs.