All new cars sold in California (United States) will have to be “zero emission” polluting, from 2035 at the latest, according to a text which must be adopted this week in this state at the forefront of efforts for energy transition from the country.

The measure to be debated this Thursday by the Californian Air Quality Board (California Air Resources Board, Carb), will formalize the objectives set in September 2020 by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, and which should encourage other states to do the same.

The project, which has a "99.9%" chance of being approved according to one of the Carb members who spoke to CNN, provides for different stages.

Both diesel and petrol vehicles are targeted.

Thus in 2026, a third of car sales in California will have to concern “zero emission” vehicles, in other words, only vehicles running on electricity, hydrogen and certain hybrid vehicles.

And it will have to be two-thirds of sales by 2030.

California: the largest car market in the United States

"It's monumental," said Daniel Sperling on CNN.

“This is the single most important thing the California Air Quality Bureau has done in the past 30 years.

This is important not just for California, but for the country and the world.”

California with its more than 40 million consumers is the largest market in the United States and its standards impact manufacturing across the country.

General Motors has already announced in January 2021 its intention to no longer build cars with polluting emissions by 2035 even if the group has not openly committed to offering only electric vehicles in 13 years.

Other initiatives to limit pollution

The highly likely passage of the California measure is expected to come as President Joe Biden signed into law a sweeping climate and health investment plan last week, which includes a $370 billion package to cut emissions. greenhouse effect by 40% by 2030.

In recent years, many countries, especially in Europe, have tried to limit pollution from the automotive sector.

The United Kingdom, Singapore and Israel have committed to ending sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, and Norway has made this commitment for 2025. Human activity, in particular the use of energy fossils, scientists believe has led to global warming, which in turn has contributed to more frequent and violent extreme weather events.

According to scientists, one of the solutions to combat this warming therefore consists in limiting polluting emissions from fossil fuels.

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  • UNITED STATES

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  • Ecology