(Finance) – “That the electrification of transport is an irreversible process on which we all agree without ifs and buts, I think it is superfluous to underline. Europe sets a large decarbonisation target together with the large international organizations, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% in 2030 compared to 1990 and this is fine, but the European Commission itself cannot claim to say that that target can be reached in only one way, in the specific case of transport by electric car”. That’s what he said Roberto Cingolani, physicist and former minister of ecological transition in the Draghi government, spoke today on Sebastiano Barisoni’s Focus Economia on Radio 24.
“We have to be very careful, no one has opposed the electrification of cars, quite the contrary. We are all working to change the supply chain, to change production models – he continues crawlers –. Those who say only with electric cars are actually slowing down the ecological transition. In Europe there are 400 million vehicles and a large percentage is polluting, it’s not even euro 6″.
“In Europe – he said crawlers commenting the idea of betting everything on the electric car to achieve the decarbonisation objectives – there is a difference in per capita income ranging from 115,000 euros per year for the Luxembourg citizen to 8,600 for the Bulgarian. Since today an electric car costs, for the same category, 15 thousand euros more than the endothermic equivalent, if Europe claims to say that this decarbonisation will be reached by 2030/2035 but only with an electric car, it begins to create discrimination scary. The Luxembourg citizen buys an electric car with 6 months’ salary, the Bulgarian with 6 years’ salary. This is environmentalism for the rich, which creates discrimination. Whoever has a Euro 2 or Euro 3 car in Europe doesn’t have it because he likes to pollute, he has it because he doesn’t have the money to exchange it. There are technologies that make it possible to decarbonise even old cars, in this specific case this is the example of synthetic fuels, which are expensive, must be encouraged as anything that goes towards the environment is encouraged. What Italy said and supported Germany with the same logic is: electricity is fine, but in the meantime we also allow those who don’t have the money to decarbonise. The position of technological neutrality says: ‘we use whatever technological means we have that allow anyone to the best of their ability to decarbonise’. How can you be against something like this?”
“We have,” he said crawlers – a geography 1330 km long and 250 wide, a country with a circular or square geometry is quite different, where you can get from point to point with a full electric tank, not in Italy. I drive a hybrid because in any case I am attentive to the production of greenhouse gases. I can’t buy an electric car because I don’t have where to recharge it close to home and because unfortunately the kind of life I lead as a driver doesn’t allow me to travel in reasonable times, I prefer to go by train. Having said that, Italy has a plan in the PNNR to install 27,000 columns over the next 5 years, it must not waste a second on electrification, it is accelerating a lot on the production of renewable energy, it must keep its commitments and it must prepare the future of mobility electric. However, out of 35 million motor vehicles, Italy has a dozen that are less than 6 euros. While we prepare everything for these Italians – he concluded crawlers – can we give the opportunity to decarbonise their vehicles?”.