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Will new EU buildings law help pave the way for an electro-mobile future?
(EurActiv, 22 Sep 2017) The ongoing reform of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) offers a once-in-a-decade opportunity to make European buildings and cities of today fit for the low pollution, electric transport of tomorrow, writes Teodora Serafimova.
Teodora Serafimova is a manager at the environmental NGO Bellona. With its headquarters in Oslo, Bellona has played a central role in initiating Norway’s electric revolution.
The Dieselgate scandal, where car makers were shown to systematically cheat air pollution standards, has brought a dirty secret to the surface: that the air in most European cities is slowly killing its inhabitants.
Until now, pollution from fossil transport was a simple fact of life, but as electric vehicles (EVs) increasingly enter the spotlight we must ask: why are our cities not clean and silent?
Thanks to rapidly falling battery prices many studies expect that within the next few years EVs will reach price parity with their conventionally fueled counterparts. A recent study by Dutch bank ING goes on to predict that EVs will account for all new car sales in Europe by as early as 2035.
Car makers, too, are coming to terms with this new reality, with Volvo being one the examples, having recently announced plans to phase out its production of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars by 2019.
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EurActiv, 22 Sep 2017: Will new EU buildings law help pave the way for an electro-mobile future?
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