AFP

California authorities are considering passing a text that would ban by 2035 the sale of new fuel-powered cars in the US state, which is spearheading the country's efforts to reach the "zero emissions" goal. The text to be discussed by the California Air Quality Board lays out a legal framework for environmental targets set in September 2020 by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, which he expects will encourage other states to follow suit. And the American "CNN" news network quoted a member of the "Air Quality Council" Daniel Sperling as saying that the chances of approval of the text are "99.9%." The proposed measure bans, in phases, the sale of new cars running on gasoline or diesel. The first stage of the proposed regulation stipulates that a third of new cars sold in the state from 2026 will be "emission-free", meaning cars that run on electricity or hydrogen as well as some types of cars with hybrid engines. By 2030, this percentage will rise to two-thirds. Sperling said the measure, when approved, would be a "tremendous thing". "This is the most important step the California Air Quality Office has taken in the past 30 years. This is important, not just for California, but for the entire country and for the world," he added. California, with a population of more than 40 million, is the largest market in the United States, and regulatory standards passed by state authorities affect manufacturing throughout the United States. And in January 2021, General Motors announced that by 2035 it would stop manufacturing cars that emit polluting emissions. In recent years, many countries, especially in Europe, have tried to reduce pollution from cars. In this context, Britain, Singapore and Israel pledged to ban sales of new petrol or diesel cars by 2030, while Norway's goal was more ambitious, as the Scandinavian country decided to impose this ban from 2025. At the end of June, the 27 member states of the European Union agreed to ban the sale of new cars with heat engines, including petrol and diesel, from 2035, as part of efforts to achieve carbon neutrality in Europe by 2050.