Once again, Germany is debating the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in road transport. Previously, the German car industry in particular wanted to prevent the introduction of CO2 fleet limits in Brussels, but now it is the phase-out of the combustion engine that was decided upon two years ago.
This stipulates that no cars with combustion engines can be registered in the EU after 2035. However, all vehicles registered before this date may continue to be driven indefinitely. Nevertheless, the new German government has reignited the debate on the end of the combustion engine. The CDU/CSU has always opposed the ban on combustion engines and is seeking to overturn the relevant EU regulation, which the traffic light coalition had agreed to. It is not only politicians who are divided on the issue, though. The car industry and environmental experts are also hotly debating the best way to decarbonise road traffic.
Karsten Schäfer talks to Isabel Cademartori, transport policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group; Monika Griefahn, CEO of the eFuels Alliance; and Andreas Cornet, who spent thirty years advising the automotive industry at management consultants McKinsey, about what this could look like.
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Isabel Cademartori is the transport policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag. Cademartori was born in Bad Saarow in 1988. After graduating from high school, she studied business administration and business education at the University of Mannheim, including a semester abroad in Chile. Her political career began in 2012 as a district councillor, later becoming a city councillor in Mannheim. In 2021, she won a direct mandate for the Bundestag. There she is a member of the Transport Committee and a deputy member of other committees. Since 2023, she has been the transport policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Cademartori is a member of the Seeheimer Kreis and takes pragmatic positions on issues such as energy policy. In 2023 and 2024, she was named one of the ‘Top 40 under 40’ by *Capital* magazine. She has German and Chilean citizenship and lives in Mannheim.
Monika Griefahn is the CEO of the eFuel Alliance. She was the Environment Minister in Lower Saxony and a co-founder of Greenpeace Germany. From 1980 to 1983, she was co-managing director of Greenpeace Germany, after which she became the first female member of the Greenpeace International board until 1990. In 1990, she became Environment Minister in Lower Saxony, campaigning in favour of renewable energies and nuclear phase-out. From 1998 to 2009, she was a member of the Bundestag for the SPD, focusing on culture, media, and foreign policy. In 2012, she founded the Institute for Media, Environment and Culture (IMUK), after which she became Head of Environment at AIDA Cruises until 2018. She then became a consultant to the Costa Group. She is involved in voluntary work with organisations such as the Right Livelihood Award Foundation and the Cradle to Cradle NGO. In 2013, Griefahn wrote about the topic 'The fundamental contradiction of the German sustainability strategy'. Cradle to Cradle as a possible solution'. In 2018, she was honoured with the Federal Cross of Merit.
Andreas Cornet worked for over 30 years as a McKinsey & Company consultant to the automotive industry. Cornet is now a Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey, as well as an investor and consultant specialising in the automotive and mobility industry. He was most recently head of the automotive supplier business in the EMEA region at McKinsey. He holds a doctorate from the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and studied Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. Before embarking on his consulting career, he co-founded a software consulting company. He is considered an expert in strategy, digitalisation and sustainability in the automotive industry, and has published the book Platform Concepts in Automotive Development. He has been committed to innovative mobility solutions since 2024.