STILL SURGING: After a record year in 2025, EV sales continued to surge in January, up by nearly a quarter in the EU. France (+52%), Italy (+41%) & Germany (+24%) saw huge surges thanks to the recent arrivals of more compact, affordable models, timed by carmakers to meet their EU car CO2 targets.

NEW: The EU’s reversal of the 2035 car CO2 target will create huge uncertainty in the EV market and could cause EV market share to fall between 50-95% by 2035 instead of 100%. The proposal would also push car CO2 emissions 10% higher than under the current target. A breakdown of T&E’s analysis 🧵

Contrails are forming a blanket around the globe – trapping in heat and adding additional warming to the planet. The good news? Targeting a small number of flights to avoid contrail in certain regions could be an easy climate win 🏆 Read our new report for more ➡️ bit.ly/4pQbKnM

NEW: Night flights in autumn and winter cause 25% of European aviation’s contrail-related warming, despite making up just 10% of European air traffic. Small tweaks to this small number of flights could be aviation’s fastest climate win. 🧵

Rail operators themselves are even saying it now: increasing competition on rail lines benefits everyone in the end. Renfe explains how beneficial it has been having competitors on some of their lines in a recent El Pais report 👇

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re looking back at some of our biggest data stories from the last year. In January, we looked at the aviation industry’s plans to double its passenger traffic by 2050 and found that this will deplete its carbon budget as early as 2026. A 🧵 with more top stories👇

BREAKING: The EU chooses complexity over clarity. Clinging to combustion engines won't make European carmakers great again. Today’s proposal from the European Commission will extend the sales of cars with engines & divert investment from EVs, while China races further ahead of Europe’s carmakers. 🧵

NEW: Tolling trucks in Ukraine could raise €1 billion for maintaining and repairing the country’s roads in the wake of the immense damage done to Ukraine’s infrastructure due to Russian aggression. 🧵⤵️

The EU’s 2035 target IS the certainty that the industry needs. Some car executives suggest a return to the combustion engine will restore Europe’s competitiveness. T&E's William Todts outlines why they couldn't be more wrong ➡️ bit.ly/4pFgVaX

Later this week the EU is due to publish its Automotive Package. Why does it matter? The package will help determine the future of automotive production in Europe – and whether the continent can scale its own battery supply chain. Here’s what to watch out for 🧵👇

BREAKING: Spain rejects any weakening of the EU 2035 cars target in a letter to Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. This comes just days before the Commission is set to release its plan for the future of Europe’s auto sector. 🧵 bit.ly/3XRbr0k

T&E, Greenpeace and 10+ organisations call on the EU to maintain the law promoting alternatives to short-haul flights. The Commission must maintain the role of the Air Services Regulation in avoiding aviation emissions growth. Our letter ➡️ bit.ly/494xdnD

NEW: Sales of locally produced EVs could increase by 1.2 million over three years by requiring large companies to electrify a bit faster, with made-in-EU requirements, T&E research shows. This is more than 2x the annual production of the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg for all powertrains. 🧵

Keep American SUVs off European streets! A new video from Not Just Bikes looks at the growing danger these vehicles pose to our road safety. It's time for EU lawmakers to take urgent action to preserve the strong safety standards that have led to declining road deaths in Europe. bit.ly/3Kk3E8g

EU 2035 latest: The oil lobby’s push for an EU biofuels loophole could create an unsustainable demand for animal fats and used cooking oil – the equivalent of 120 pigs per car. A 🧵 on what this loophole would mean for Europe’s limited supply of advanced biofuels 👇

NEW: The EU’s rules governing mining waste are found to be far behind global best practice – like those followed by Brazil – and on some criteria even fall behind China. As the world races to secure critical minerals, robust legislation on mining waste is key. Read the briefing ➡️ bit.ly/4rgbYqf

Uncontrolled aviation growth isn't just terrible climate policy, it is bad economic policy. In large parts of Europe, industry claims that airport expansion and ever more flights bring guaranteed economic growth are simply not supported by the evidence. Explore our report for more 👇

NEW: How can we make electric cars even cleaner? By using green aluminium. Switching automotive production to low-carbon aluminum could cost just €25 extra per car by 2040. Read our new study 👇 bit.ly/4qRohZI

Passenger growth at Europe’s major airports is projected to skyrocket in the coming years. But this will likely bring little to no additional benefits to the economy – and in some cases may have negative effects. It’s time to rethink how we see the role of airports. Our report ➡️ bit.ly/47y7q5e

NEW: Air traffic growth is not a guarantee of economic growth, despite industry claims. These claims, often echoed by governments to justify airport expansion, are undermined by new research. 🧵⤵️

In the 2000s, footballing superstar Thierry Henry became the face of Renault’s Clio adverts. It typified the swagger of Europe’s small car industry. The intervening years have been less kind, but a new initiative could put the va-va-voom back into the industry. Read the op-ed ➡️ bit.ly/3JyeZ4d

Leading medical publication the British Medical Journal recognises SUVs as a danger to public health in a new editorial co-authored by T&E’s James Nix: bit.ly/4hVDlBC Large SUVs are a danger to pedestrians, cyclists & other drivers. It's time to take action to reduce their presence in urban areas.

The @ec.europa.eu High-Speed Rail plan is here, and it makes some big promises about reducing rail travel times. Upcoming changes to the route between Paris and Madrid show how critical removing technical barriers will be to connecting every large European city by train. Read more ➡️ bit.ly/4onKDAt

NEW: EU shipping emissions jumped 13% in 2024. Despite a downtick in global trade, last year saw the highest level of emissions since MRV data collection began. A deep dive on the data 👇 🧵

The EU transport plan published today sets out the first steps to boost green fuel production for planes and ships. Now the EU needs to follow through if it wants to retain its industrial leadership. Read our reaction to the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan ( #STIP ) 👇 bit.ly/43feRNx

We put a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) to the test under real-world city driving conditions — and the results didn’t match the promises made by manufacturers. Is it time to admit plug-in hybrids are nearly as bad for the climate as petrol cars? Watch the video 👇 youtu.be/574tag9Aj-M

LATEST: The Danish consumer ombudsman has reprimanded Finnish oil producer Neste for marketing its #biodiesel as sustainable. Until oil companies can provide full supply chain transparency of their #biofuel products, their fuels cannot be considered truly sustainable.

NEW: European fossil fuel companies made €180bn in profits in the EU in the two years following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EU should tax these profits to reduce Europeans’ exposure to energy price spikes, or end fossil fuel subsidies. 🧵⤵️

Europeans want to see improvements to the rail booking process – especially young people aged 18 to 24. Booking train journeys is so difficult that it is putting people off of train travel altogether. It’s time the EU took the need to fix this problem seriously. See the results ➡️ bit.ly/3Ww78qA

NEW: Aviation taxes, charges and fees have a limited impact on passenger numbers. Instead, aviation demand is primarily driven by airline strategies and travel trends. But airlines claim national taxes, fees and charges to address the climate impact of aviation are driving passengers away. 🧵⤵️

You can book a flight in 30 seconds, but a long-distance cross-border rail journey? Better clear your afternoon. The hassle of booking tickets is putting Europeans off rail altogether. This must change if it is to be a real alternative for cross‑border travel. See the poll results ➡️ bit.ly/4hqpJOi

✈️ EASA’s first report on ReFuelEU is out, confirming the urgent need for EU action on e-fuels, taxation and air traffic growth. A 🧵 on our main takeaways from the report ⤵️

Europeans want train travel to be easier, but gaps in the current system are putting them off rail altogether. The upcoming #SingleTicketingPackage is the EU’s chance to finally improve long-distance rail. 🧵⤵️

EU vehicle safety regulations have supported a 36% reduction in European road deaths since 2010, while road deaths in the US over the same period increased 30%. Aligning EU standards with laxer US rules would undermine the EU’s global leadership in road safety. Read the letter 👇

Despite being among the most carbon-intensive modes of transport, aviation and shipping continue to enjoy generous VAT exemptions across Europe. This is costing governments billions in lost revenue and putting cleaner forms of passenger transport at a competitive disadvantage. 🧵⤵️

Plug-in hybrids perform much worse in the real world than their ‘official’ testing suggests. This means more fuel burned, higher costs and more CO2. The EU cannot weaken its car CO2 rules to allow space for these expensive, polluting cars. Explore our analysis 👉 bit.ly/4oeXK6u

Three sad facts that shouldn’t be like this: • Transport is one of the EU’s biggest sources of CO2 • Aviation emissions are still rising fastest • Young people often fly instead of taking the train because it’s cheaper and easier Yet travelling by train is five times cleaner than flying

NEW: Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as petrol cars, new data shows. Yet EU carmakers are pressuring lawmakers to treat these cars as clean under the guise of ‘technology neutrality’. 🧵⤵️

Driving just 100 km with a car using biofuels would require close to 3,000 litres of water due to the huge amount of water they require. It would only take about 20 litres to produce solar electricity to drive an EV that same distance. Our report on the massive impact of biofuels 👉 bit.ly/4h1M5W9

Electric car sales in the EU are up by almost a quarter so far this year! The bloc's car CO2 targets are continuing to drive EV take-up – as carmakers respond by bringing more affordable models to market. Now is not the time to weaken the targets further. 🧵⤵️

Demand for biofuels is putting a huge strain on global land use. Today growing crops to be burned as fuel uses up to 32 mn hectares of land to meet just 4% of global transport energy demand. That is set to grow to 52 mn by 2030. Our report on the global implications of biofuels 👉 bit.ly/4h1M5W9

NEW: Biofuels globally emit more than the fossil fuels they replace, our latest study shows. The first-of-a-kind study looks at global biofuels production today and the potential impacts of government biofuel targets. 🧵⤵️

LEAK: Car industry demands would cut EV sales in half & turn Europe’s car regulation into ‘Swiss cheese – full of holes’, according to T&E analysis of a leaked industry position paper. This position will completely undermine the investment certainty needed for Europe to catch up in the EV race. 🧵

🚛 The Netherlands is seeing a major shift in urban freight thanks to zero-emission zones for freight in 18 of its cities. By early 2025, 78% of new vans were electric -- compared to just 9% across the EU. 📑 New @cleancitiescampaign.org briefing: bit.ly/431I7al

🛫 The European Investment Bank (@eib.org) published on Friday its new #ClimateBank Roadmap Phase 2. The EIB’s decision to maintain the ban on funding for airport expansion is key. However, this ban should also be enforced with no backdoor financing. 🧵⤵️

✈️ NEW: Spain could raise up to €2.8 billion extra for sustainable aviation by matching the taxes other Europeans put on airline tickets with simply a small surcharge per ticket. 🧵⤵️

Mercedes-Benz and others want to overturn the EU’s 2035 ban on petrol cars. This would be as disastrous for jobs as for the climate. "Car manufacturers are already letting people go... Continuing to make combustion-engine models would not staunch job losses in the long run." bit.ly/42KvmRq

10 years after carmakers were caught cheating, the next Dieselgate scandal will be legal. Are PHEVs the new defeat device? 🧵⤵️

Today T&E joined @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu for a dialogue on the future of the EU auto industry. While the industry is pushing to open up the CO2 standards, the EU's top priority must be to keep a clear investment signal. Read the debrief from our Executive Director 👉 bit.ly/4nztWRX

“𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆” - 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶 𝗖𝗘𝗢 As EU Commission President Von der Leyen debates the future of the 2035 cars CO2 Regulation with auto execs, Audi CEO Gernot Döllner criticised industry efforts to undermine the auto sector's transition to electric. bit.ly/42q7Bhe