Statement by Vivianne Heijnen, Dutch Minister for the Environment, at Side-event Global Memorandum of Understanding Zero-Emission on Medium- and Heavy-Duty vehicles
Minister Heijnen: ‘The Global MOU was first announced last year at COP26 and before today included 16 country signatories. The Global MOU expresses the aspiration governments and industry towards 100 per cent sales of new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles being zero emissions by 2040. Today I am pleased to announce many new country signatories. They come from across the globe. Small island nations like the Dominican Republic, Curacao, Aruba; often at the frontier of dealing with strong adverse impacts of climate change. And some large countries, like Ukraine, defending and reclaiming its frontiers and yet underscoring the benefits of zero emission vehicles and need to rebuild its infrastructure. And signposting their future. I am impressed by that.’
The Global MOU was first announced last year at COP26 and before today included 16 country signatories. The Global MOU expresses the aspiration governments and industry towards 100% sales of new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles being zero emissions by 2040.
Today I am pleased to announce many new country signatories. They come from across the globe. Small island nations like the Dominican Republic, Curacao, Aruba,; often at the frontier of dealing with strong adverse impacts of climate change. And some large countries, like Ukraine, defending and reclaiming its frontiers and yet underscoring the benefits of zero emission vehicles and need to rebuild its infrastructure. And signposting their future. I am impressed by that.
The new countries are of different sizes. From countries in Europe: Belgium, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Croatia, and Lithuania . To a large country across the Atlantic, the United States, currently the country signatory with the largest fleet of trucks and buses. And who committed to very strong investments towards zero-emission vehicles. We now count of much stronger ambition in Europe, North America, South America and Asia-Pacific.
Welcome to all. I appreciate you expressing your leadership. It shows a growing recognition of the benefits of shifting to zero emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.
A recognition also understood by vehicle producers, charging infrastructure providers and technology producers. Welcome to all new endorsers of this Global MoU, including Siemens, Heliox, Avere, Elevort, and Commercial Vehicle Charging Europe and various vehicle producers. We now count on more than 70 business endorsers committed to climate action.
I hope this growing momentum translates in a growing uptake of zero emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. This sector is no longer hard to abate. It is ready to abate. With the technology quickly developing and being cost competitive any time soon, producers voicing strong ambitions and the pivotal charging infrastructure being acted upon. I sense a great appetite all over to enter this transition. The subsidy program I launched was depleted in a few hours only.
So there is a growing momentum. Ambitious policy can bolster this. I will be ambitious on the European Commission when it revised it CO2 standards for heavy-duty vehicles. I hope many European countries will join me in that ambition.
And I hope that when we join next year many more across the globe will sign this Global MoU.