The EU is specifying its climate protection goals and proposing to reduce emissions by 90 percent by 2040. Politically, the goals are certainly ambitious, but what would they mean in concrete terms – for example for your own car?
In recent years, many of my friends who didn’t previously own a car have bought one. A bus for holidays and weekend trips, station wagons in which you can easily stow two children and luggage. There were many reasons: the pandemic, growing family, moving, getting out of the big city.
Everything is understandable, without question. At the same time, it is clear: emissions must come down as quickly as possible and ideally to zero if we want to stop global warming and preserve our livelihoods. The EU specified its climate protection goals this week and wants to reduce emissions by 90 percent by 2040. Additional combustion engines on the road will not bring us any closer to this goal. So what does this actually mean for road traffic?
“Active mobility” against the climate crisis
The EU Commission is still leaving this relatively open. She does mention that rails need to be used more and more efficiently and that “sustainable and affordable mobility in the city” should be promoted, for example through appropriate urban planning.
(Quelle: Reinaldo Coddou H.)
To person
The situation is extremely serious, but not hopeless. The freelance journalist explains according to this motto Sara Schurmann the big picture and small details of the climate crisis so that everyone can understand it.
Like in her book “Clear language climate!” – and now in her column at T-Online. She was honored by Medium Magazine in 2022 for her work Science Journalist of the Year chosen.
More public transport, more “active mobility”, i.e. walking and cycling for short distances. All of this could make an important contribution to saving emissions and at the same time will have positive effects on people’s health. However, there is also talk of the fact that, among other things, the expansion of so-called e-fuels needs to be heavily supported financially. You can read more about e-fuels here.
So will combustion engines soon simply be refueled with e-fuels? Does everyone have to switch to electric cars? Or even on the bus, train and bike?
Climate protection must become more efficient
The conclusion in the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is quite clear: Given the high costs and limited efficiency, the introduction of synthetic fuels will concentrate on aviation, shipping and long-distance road transport. In other words, exactly in the areas where the drives cannot be easily converted to electric drives.
In order to reduce emissions as quickly as possible, it will not be enough to replace every combustion engine with an electric car, this is also clear from a scientific perspective. If all possible areas and sectors are powered by renewable energy, it has to come from somewhere, as do the battery raw materials for electric cars.
Paris is doing the unimaginable
Instead, cities need a serious transport transition. What many long considered unfeasible and even unimaginable has been made easy in Paris for a few years under Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
The space in the city is being redistributed, pedestrians and cyclists are increasingly on the streets, and parking fees for SUVs are tripling. In the future, everything residents need in everyday life should be within walking distance of 15 minutes.
Of course, this is not a solution for rural areas, but if cities want to reduce their emissions, they will not be able to avoid such a conversion.
Germany is getting better – but is that enough?
The EU goals must be implemented by the member states. The transport sector is the only area in Germany in which hardly anything has happened since 1990. SUVs are partly responsible for this. They account for more than half of new registrations worldwide, and their high consumption negates the savings that more efficient technologies actually make possible.
2024-02-09 14:05:44.768 – 1707487544768
