Emboldened by President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, France rolled out ambitious plans to reduce its carbon footprint on Thursday. The country aims to end sales of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040 and become carbon neutral 10 years later, environmental minister Nicolas Hulot said at a news conference. “One of the symbolic acts of the plan is that France, which previously had made the promise to divide its greenhouse gas emissions by four by 2050, has decided to become carbon neutral by 2050 following the U.S. decision,” Hulot said. The announcement came one day after Volvo Cars said it would build only hybrid and electric cars by 2019. The Chinese-owned Swedish automaker’s commitment may be the boldest yet to a technology that currently powers a small sliver of the car market, but it’s far from the only notable investment by a traditional car manufacturer.

Source: Huffington Post July 06, 2017 16:18 UTC