US resists UK call to end polluting car sales

Biden fears domestic backlash as Britain takes lead on curbs for petrol and diesel vehicles

‘The UK continues to push the G20 and other countries to make the big policy decisions’

‘We’re looking forward to a productive second week to make further progress’

THE United States is refusing to sign up to plans led by the UK for a global deal to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars during talks at the Cop26 climate summit.

Germany, Europe’s largest car manufacturer, can also not sign up to the agreement while it is still stuck in coalition talks, which could take weeks.

The UK wants all countries to commit to ending the sale of new polluting cars by 2035 for richer countries and 2040 for developing countries, in a major announcement expected in Glasgow on Wednesday. But it has been in last minute talks with the Biden administration team which is resisting the commitment because of concerns of domestic political backlash as President Joe Biden struggles to get his climate agenda through Congress.

Senior Democrat politicians including Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are expected to fly to Glasgow for the second week of talks, amid growing frustration at US inaction at the summit.

China is also expected to reject the agreement, partly because Beijing, is reluctant to sign a Uk-led agreement while relations between the two countries remain at a low point.

The EU’S own deadlines on phasing out petrol and diesel cars are locked in negotiations among member states over its decarbonisation package, although individual states can join.

The absence of key players underscores the difficulty in achieving the UK’S aim at the conference to “keep alive” the ambitions of the Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5C.

Alongside the formal negotiations, the UK has said multilateral deals on coal, cars, financing and deforestation, will help secure success at the summit. It has been criticised for over-promising in messaging about the deals.

In the US, Mr Biden has only this year set a deadline for half of all car sales to be electric by 2030, and reversed moves by Donald Trump to loosen pollution standards.

The president has been locked for weeks in a struggle with Congress to secure funding for his climate plans, with an infrastructure deal that includes billions for clean energy only passing late on Friday night.

The majority of climate change funding is still stuck in a second bill, which has been blocked by centrist Democrats who are concerned over costs.

Only about 2 per cent of cars sold a year in the US are pure electric, compared to around 7 per cent in the UK and 10 per cent in Europe.

Meanwhile, workers in the rust belt states where car manufacturing is based are wary of moving too fast, with the auto workers union recently warning against “unrealistic mandates”.

Fears of a backlash among coal mining communities in the wake of the shock Democrat defeat in the Virginia governor race were highlighted as one of the reasons Mr Biden declined to sign up to last week’s deal, which the UK touted as heralding “the end of coal”.

A Cop spokesman said: “As Cop26 President, the UK continues to push the G20 and other countries to make the big policy decisions required to keep the 1.5C target alive.”

Juan Pablo Osornio, head of Greenpeace’s delegation, said: “For this announcement to have credibility all major auto manufacturing countries need to be part of it, including Germany and the US.”