The EU’s decision on car engines must be revised.

The EU’s decision to ban the sale of cars with internal combustion engines after 2035 is an illogical decision, a flagrant mistake, and it must be revised. The EU should instead focus on banning fossil and environmentally hazardous emissions.

– Modern internal combustion engines have sufficient purification. Today, 95 percent of particle emissions come from tires and asphalt. This is not a very good climate decision either. It will delay the transition and lead to unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. The decision must be reconsidered by a new EU Commission and future EU parliament after next year’s EU elections, says Gustav Melin, CEO of the Swedish Bioenergy Association.

– It is difficult to understand why the Swedish EU parliamentarians and the Swedish governments support this policy. In Sweden, our strategy so far has been to reduce emissions from the transport sector with a combination of electrification and renewable fuels. We have always believed that development should be managed by general incentives and market operators should be allowed to choose freely between technical solutions. With this decision, politicians have taken over the role of companies and consumers.

– The decision is based on measuring emissions from the exhaust pipe of the car only while ignoring life cycle emissions including vehicle and battery manufacturing. The overall impact of an electric car is greater than that of a car that runs on a biofuel such as HVO. This decision is therefore not a decision that primarily focuses on climate impact.

– The decision means that no biofuels can be used for cars, whether that be conventional biofuels, biogas, or new advanced biofuels, including so-called synthetic fuels from recycled biogenic carbon dioxide and renewable hydrogen gas. It will inhibit the technological development of such fuels and limit the contribution of agriculture and forestry to climate change in the EU.

– When making the decision, the decision-makers in Brussels disregarded objections that came from leading vehicle and engine researchers (Call for researchers). It shows that scientific arguments are not considered.

– For the European car industry, the decision means that there will be greater difficulties competing in the market where fuel-based vehicles are a necessity, for example in rapidly growing developing countries where there is a lack of reliable electricity distribution.