© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Police controls a truck after a ban of diesel cars on two streets was approved a few weeks ago in downtown Hamburg, Germany, June 21, 2018. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer/File Photo
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany plans to vote in favour of EU plans to cut truck emissions, government sources said on Friday, after Berlin’s stance was unclear earlier this week following disagreement within the three-way coalition.
“There is white smoke,” a government representative told Reuters.
The European Council and Parliament last month agreed a provisional deal for a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions from heavy-duty vehicles by 2040 compared to 2019 levels.
A vote in Brussels on a provisional deal had been planned for Wednesday but was delayed until Friday.
German government representatives said on Friday that the transport ministry, the portfolio of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), had given up its resistance to a compromise.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing had expressed objections to the plans, and that he wanted to allow climate-neutral e-fuels – like e-kerosene, e-methane, or e-methanol, which are made by synthesizing captured CO2 emissions and hydrogen – to count towards this target.
In agreement with other EU states, there should now be a kind of protocol note or footnote on the use of e-fuels, though this will not change the core of the project, said the sources.
