After more than 16 hours of negotiations, environment ministers from the European Union's 27 member states have reached an agreement on five laws from a broader package of measures aimed at ensuring a 2035 phase-out of new fossil-fuel car sales and providing financial support to shield poorer citizens from the costs of carbon dioxide emissions.
The new climate rules are expected to reduce EU carbon emissions by at least 55 per cent in 2030 compared with 1990 rather than by a previously agreed 40 per cent.
“The climate crisis and its consequences are clear, and so policy is unavoidable,” said EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans.
Some of the core parts of the package presented were first proposed by the European Commission last summer, including a law requiring new cars sold in the EU to emit zero CO2 from 2035, which would effectively ban the sale of internal-combustion engine cars.
The ban on combustion-engine cars has already been backed by...