A majority of residents of European cities support a Europe-wide phaseout of combustion engine car sales from 2030 to reduce planet-warming emissions, a YouGov poll conducted on behalf of environmental campaigners said on Monday.
A Hyundai Kona electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) in a cradle on the assembly line at the Hyundai Motor Co. plant in Nosovice, Czech Republic, on Wednesday, April 7, 2021. Photo: VCG
Of 10,050 survey respondents, 63 percent said they supported the idea that after 2030, only emission-free cars should be sold in Europe.
In March, the online opinion poll surveyed people in 15 cities including London, Warsaw and Budapest, with an average of 29 percent opposing the idea of ending petrol and diesel car sales, while 8 percent said they did not know. In all cities, a majority of respondents - ranging from 51 percent in Antwerp and Berlin, to 77 percent in Rome - supported a ban.
Brussels-based campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E), which commissioned the poll, urged the European Commission to include an EU-wide end date for combustion car sales in climate policy proposals due in June. "People in cities are the most exposed to toxic levels of air pollution, and they don't want internal combustion engines to be sold for any longer than is necessary," T&E's senior vehicles director Julia Poliscanova said.
The Commission said in September it would assess the timeline "to the market" to deliver the EU's target.