France will 'ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040'

Environment minister unveils five-year-plan to fulfil country’s commitments under Paris Agreement

Chloe Farand from the UK Independent

France plans to ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, the country’s new environment minister has announced.

Nicolas Hulot made the announcement as he unveiled a series of measures as part of newly elected President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to make the country carbon neutral by 2050.

Mr Hulot said he recognised the target would put pressure on France’s car manufacturers, but he said they currently had projects which “can fulfil that promise”.

As part of the plan, poorer households will receive a premium so they can swap their polluting vehicles for clean alternatives.

The announcement comes after Volvo said on Wednesday it planned to built only electric and hybrid vehicles from 2019.

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Hulot told reporters France would stop using coal to produce electricity by 2022 and that up to €4bn of investments will help to boost energy efficiency.

The announcements are part of a five-year-plan to encourage clean energy and fulfil the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Mr Hulot said the government wanted to maintain the country’s “leadership” in climate policy.

“We want to demonstrate that fighting against climate change can lead to an improvement of French people’s daily lives,” he said.

France is not the only country which aims to ban combustion-powered cars. The Netherlands and Norway previously said they wanted to get rid of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2025 and Germany and India announced similar plans ahead of 2030.

Read the rest here:

Hat Tip / Roger Sowell

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July 9, 2017 6:30 pm

La France est condamnée.

July 9, 2017 7:10 pm

The guy is 39 years old and married to his high school teacher. Does anybody take him seriously?
Wikipedia;
Macron studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, completed a Master’s of Public Affairs at Sciences Po, and graduated from the École nationale d’administration (ENA) in 2004. He worked as an Inspector of Finances in the Inspectorate General of Finances (IGF), then became an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque.[1]
Tell me this is some kind of a put on.

dan no longer in CA
July 9, 2017 8:36 pm

Anybody recognize the what type of car is in this news item: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/10/electric-car-gutted-flames-set-fire-charging/ Seems that it burst into flames in the wee hours of the morning while on charge.

Michael Wuebben
July 9, 2017 8:47 pm

I love the fact that a record of where I was picked up and where I was dropped off will be recorded for any one to access (with the proper legal documents of course). Government, suspicious spouse, etc…

Michael Wuebben
Reply to  Michael Wuebben
July 9, 2017 8:49 pm

That is regarding the autonomous vehicles.

Angus McHaggis
July 9, 2017 10:33 pm

Time Monsieur Hulot went on holiday.

R. de Haan
July 9, 2017 11:09 pm

Governments can propose one silly idea after another but that doesn’t mean it is going to happen.

Catcracking
Reply to  R. de Haan
July 10, 2017 7:32 am

Sadly that happens too often

observa
July 10, 2017 7:16 am

Meanwhile in South Oz we’ve got our fingers crossed the big battery is not the big Samsung-
https://gearheads.org/tesla-model-s-is-a-total-loss-due-to-an-unexplained-fire/
(via Tim Blair)

July 10, 2017 11:32 am

… won’t allow the sale of gas/diesel vehicles …
There will obviously be an exception for vehicles that need to be reliable under all situations. Emergency vehicles, tow trucks, etc..
Isn’t it the French farmers that spray fertilizer (cow crap) all over the place when they irritated with government policy … there will be exceptions for farm vehicles.
When electric vehicle technology is reliable & good enough for the fire trucks it will be good enough for me.

July 10, 2017 1:54 pm

With a mandated majority of electric cars we can confidently expect a lot more of this