Dear reader,
If in future the family SUV will be filled up with emission-free fuel, why not speed down the motorway with a clear conscience?
Why did the EU come up with the idea of wanting to ban the combustion engine instead of giving people the freedom to choose between sustainable fuel in combustion engines and electric cars?
Openness to technology is the keyword – and who could object to more freedom?
By 2035, Ursula von der Leyen is aiming for the end of the fossil car.
From the year new cars should no longer be allowed to emit carbon dioxide emissions, according to the head of the EU Commission last week.
By 2030, car manufacturers must reduce the CO2 emissions of vehicles in the European fleet average by 55 percent from today's 95 grams of CO₂/kilometer.
A CO2 price surcharge is also to be levied on conventional fuel in the future.
On Tuesday of this week, FDP party leader and finance minister Christian Lindner made an unusually clear objection to the project.
They do not support the "de facto ban on the internal combustion engine" and consider - be careful - "technology openness" to be an essential part of the market economy.
Apparently, the FDP is particularly bothered by the exclusion of e-fuels, the last hope for roaring sports cars, which according to the cliché are mainly driven by the FDP clientele.
Now it is said that a solution is being sought within the coalition.
Scarce green electricity
It's true: Whether a journey is made in an electric car loaded with green electricity or in climate-neutral e-fuels makes hardly any difference to the greenhouse gas balance of the route.
However, synthetic fuels are not a real argument for retaining combustion technology, because the problems lie elsewhere.
One thing is scarce in all areas of the major climate protection project and will remain so for a while: renewable energy.
Even in the electricity sector, where the energy transition began more than 20 years ago, just over 40 percent comes from renewable sources. The most important energy source in Germany is still coal, and the proportion of green energy used for heating was recently less than 20 percent , even with the conversion of energy-intensive production in industry to sustainable sources, most of the way still lies ahead of us.
The amount of wind turbines and photovoltaic systems that need to be deployed to decarbonize all of these areas is huge.
The scarce resource of green electricity should therefore be used as efficiently as possible.
However, e-fuels fare particularly badly.
Even their production is extremely energy-intensive because the intermediate step of hydrogen production consumes large amounts of green electricity.
According to Volkswagen, the bottom line is that the fuels have an efficiency of just 10 to 15 percent.
The remaining valuable energy is lost.
Battery electric cars, on the other hand, convert 80 to 90 percent of the output energy into kinetic energy.
Own wind turbines in the garden for driving fun?
No wonder that many large car manufacturers have announced that they are phasing out the combustion engine, some of them without any legal regulations. For the post-fossil world, they rely almost exclusively on e-cars.
E-fuels, on the other hand, could have a future in special vehicles for fire brigades, rescue services and in aviation, because electrification is much more difficult in these areas.
It would be sheer waste and simply irrational to burn valuable green electricity en masse in normal cars if a significantly more economical variant is available.
If fans of e-fuels continue to claim that they are just as climate-neutral in consumption as sustainably charged e-cars, they are not answering the question of where the additional wind farms required for combustion engine driving fun should be located, for which there is already a conflictual search for land becomes.
Those who continue to uphold openness to technology should voluntarily open up the front yard for wind turbines.
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The topics of the week
EU proposal for a sales ban from 2035: Why the FDP wants to tip the combustion engine out
A few days before the vote in the EU Council of Ministers, FDP party leader Lindner single-handedly spoke out against a sales ban on combustion cars.
Internal papers show what the Liberals really want.
Germany's new coal boom: The climate should wait.
Economics Minister Habeck wants to shut down coal-fired power plants again
, but now he has to start them up because of the war in Ukraine.
The paradoxical lesson from this: Our climate targets are not ambitious enough for the real world.
Habeck's proposal for the use of coal-fired power plants: "Then the CO₂ emissions will increase by up to 30 million tons."
Economics Minister Robert Habeck wants to save gas and increasingly convert coal into electricity again.
Climate expert Niklas Höhne on the consequences for the German climate goals - and how they could still be achieved.
Robert Habeck on the lack of gas in Germany: »Putin wants our country to disintegrate.
But we won't split up.«
The Vice-Chancellor expects a hard winter for the Germans.
Here he talks about Putin's calculations, cold apartments and how quickly he takes a shower himself.
Elektro-Bulli ID.Buzz: This car should become VW's electric star
The E-Bulli should compete with Tesla and become Volkswagen's technological figurehead.
It is produced in the old commercial vehicle factory in Hanover, without any glamour.
How does that fit together?
Forest fires in Brandenburg alarm foresters: Germany's powder keg
In front of Berlin, around 400 hectares of forest were on fire - the soil here is contaminated with war ammunition.
You could even smell the fire in Dresden.
Experts explain how the forest can be made fit for the climate crisis.
Drought in northern Italy: »I've been by the river since I was a child.
I can't remember such a situation.«
An extreme heat wave is currently hitting Europe.
The water level on the Po River in northern Italy is the lowest it has been in more than 70 years.
A call to Marco Destro, who has to suspend his boat tours.
stay confident
Yours, Kurt Stukenberg