At a European Parliament debate on EU–Brazil cooperation in industrial decarbonisation, policymakers and industry leaders urged the European Commission to adopt a technology-neutral approach to climate policy. Participants warned that pursuing a single technological route to net zero risks accelerating deindustrialisation and weakening Europe’s strategic autonomy.
The discussion, chaired by Hélder Sousa Silva (EPP, Portugal), Chair of the Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Brazil, brought together representatives of the European Commission, the automotive sector and academia. The debate comes as the Commission begins reviewing the post-2035 CO₂ framework for cars and vans and prepares the forthcoming Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP), which together will define the next regulatory and financial cycle for Europe’s mobility and industrial transition.
Opening the session, Paulo Cunha (EPP, Portugal) said that Europe and Brazil can learn from each other in managing industrial change. “Europe must stay ambitious but realistic,” he said. “Brazil’s model shows that innovation, policy and industrial growth can progress together.”
Pedro Miguel da Costa e Silva, Brazil’s Ambassador to the EU, said that “multiple technological pathways can coexist”. Flexibility, he added, “is capable of offering practical and sustainable paths to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 for all nations, especially developing nations”. He called for “a discussion based in facts, in figures, and in what really contributes to carbon neutrality and to decarbonisation”.
In an interview with Green Mobility Magazine, Mathias Giannini, CEO of Horse Powertrain, rejected the claim that Renault and Geely investing in Horse Powertrain was akin to Kodak investing in film. “I think they’re completely wrong because, as I mentioned earlier today, the investment in future technologies and efficient hybrid solutions is not contradictory or even competing with the EV transition. It’s actually complementing and accelerating our transition to net-zero,” he said. “We’re not talking about one technology replacing another. We’re talking about technologies coexisting now to help us accelerate towards that transition to net-zero.”
Giannini said that some policymakers “have been short-sighted” because “if we move from thinking of using ideology to drive our decisions and we use data and facts, data and facts shows that by 2040, as I mentioned, you have 50 percent of the vehicles that will still be produced with some sort of an engine”. He continued: “It’s not a competing strategy. Let’s continue to push as strong as we can to accelerate the EVs, but at the same time let’s make sure that the other 50 percent, or 40 percent, or 30 percent, whatever the number is, becomes more and more efficient as time goes.”
Asked about the role of e-fuels, Giannini said, “We will not be able to get to net zero, without the e-fuels portion. But that’s where again it’s the multiple path to net zero. We can’t just focus on one stream, one single lane, one technology. If we focus on all of them, we have a much better chance to achieve our goals.”
