World leaders are focusing on electric vehicles to reduce emissions and combat the climate crisis. Following COP26, even more so. But electrifying vehicles is simply taking the high road..
Governments just aren’t doing enough. Hopping on a popular opportunity such as electric vehicles is only marginally better the manufacturing the same size internal combustion engine SUV’s for instance. The effort should be on less cars and smaller ones and more on improving transportation alternatives.
President Biden’s rush to give tax credits to EV’s ‘made only in America’ is dishonest to the Canadian auto industry – maybe its death knell. PM Trudeau met him in Washington to deplore such a biased decision. Will it change anything forward thinking – who knows!
Transportation accounts for about 30% of greenhouse gases in North America, half of that comes from passenger vehicles. Biden’s steps toward electrification however, allowed him to forget his pledge to phase out fossil-fuel vehicles by 2040.
Electric vehicles are one piece of a strategy to slash transport emissions, but they tend to receive far more attention than proposals to cut the usage of cars period. But just replacing every personal vehicle with a battery-powered equivalent will produce an environmental disaster of its own. Such a strategy also denies the opportunity to rethink a near-century of misguided auto-oriented city planning. How can the world be saved if our politicians are so near-sighted?
The focus on tailpipe emissions misses the bigger picture, and at a moment when we can see the complex, global nature of supply chains in our everyday lives, we need to think beyond such a limited framing of electric vehicles’ environmental impact.
For example, particulate matter created from tire, brake, and road wear, as well as the dust kicked up by cars on the road, does not drive climate change, but it does create air smog responsible for thousands of premature deaths yearly.
Yet while health effects are important, the biggest concern of electric vehicles is the minerals required to make the batteries and the mining that has to happen to extract them. It’s a reality that seriously dirties their green image and shows that “zero emissions” aren’t accurate.
The International Energy Agency estimated achieving target emissions by 2050 will require six times more minerals than is necessary today, the majority required for electric vehicles and storage, while demand for batteries grows substantially.
The environmental impacts of mining pose a threat to the lives and livelihoods of locals, harm the surrounding environment, use excess amounts of water, and create significant amounts of waste.
In some countries, a more organized opposition to mining activities is forming that call it a form of green extractives where people and ecosystems are sacrificed in the name of the climate crisis. As plans to extract more minerals escalate, the backlash will only grow.
Electric vehicles tend to be more environmentally friendly to communities they build near than those powered by gas or diesel but they still have a significant footprint that primarily occurs in the production stage.
The assumption that everyone will drive simply isn’t sustainable. But it’s not the best path for the environment, nor for our communities.
As leaders at COP26 were focused on electric vehicles, a network of mayors were arguing that public transit use needs to double by 2030 in order to meet emissions targets. Making transit available within a 10-minute walk of people’s homes would not only encourage its use and create tens of millions of jobs, but it could also begin to transform our relationship to mobility.
We should seize this opportunity to challenge the past century of auto-oriented planning and emphasize walking, cycling, and transit use over driving. Not only would people’s quality of life improve, but if we’re serious about taking on the climate crisis, we need to significantly reduce the number of cars and SUVs on the road — regardless of what powers them.
Finally, President Biden must factor into his EV formula Canadian car plants. Better still he should study the long-term effects of chemical over uses for batteries.
The decision-makers must get the priorities straight!
