European Union lawmakers voted to uphold a ban on new combustion engine automobiles from 2035, holding off a problem that may have put the bloc’s local weather objectives in danger.

Members of Parliament voted in opposition to an modification that may have eased a requirement on carmakers to chop emissions, to a 90 % discount by 2035, as a substitute of the 100% the Fee proposed final yr. The consequence units out the place for negotiations with member states later this yr that can decide the ultimate form of the regulation.

If an settlement is reached then, it successfully spells the tip of the combustion engine automobile in Europe, marking a radical overhaul of a type of transport that has dominated for greater than a century. It will even be an important win for the bloc’s local weather agenda, with the transportation sector proving one of many hardest to decarbonize.

Lawmakers from the conservative European Individuals’s Get together — in addition to different right-leaning teams — had tried to tone down the ambition on chopping automobiles’ carbon emissions, highlighting issues over potential job losses within the business.

Lawmakers additionally voted in opposition to an modification that may permit carmakers to purchase credit for so-called e-fuels. These artificial fuels, made utilizing captured carbon dioxide, with hydrogen produced from renewables, have been touted as a technique to maintain the combustion engine.