The EU gets tough on trucking emissions: The EU is backing tougher emission restrictions for trucks seconding regulation proposed in February to push down emissions from heavy cars by 45% from 2019 levels by 2030, Reuters reports. The targets also propose to push down emissions by 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2040. The law — which EU climate ministers have agreed to support — will have to be negotiated in the EU Parliament before final approval. While the EU’s move signals a step toward meeting the bloc’s 2050 carbon neutrality target, EU countries delayed approval of a plan to electrify all of the bloc’s new city buses by 2030 by five years after France and Estonia said the 2030 deadline was “unrealistic.”

REMEMBER- The EU wants to ban the sale of fossil fuel-powered cars entirely: The EU is lobbying plans to slash car emissions by 55% compared to 2021 levels by 2030 before ultimately banning the sale of petrol and diesel engines by 2035, but final approval for the target has been delayed several times. Back in March, the bloc began talks with Europe’s largest automaking country Germany on legislation allowing the sale and manufacture of combustion engine vehicles beyond the bloc’s previously agreed termination date provided they run on e-fuels, after the country postponed an EU vote to phase them out in February. Germany — which generates some EUR 411 bn per annum from auto sales — is lobbying for a flexible approach that would not see an outright prohibition of fuel-powered cars.