Global climate change is one of the greatest and at the same time most important challenges of our time. For too long, the effects of the immense CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions have been played down. In the meantime, even the last nations have had to admit that the current global warming is happening much too fast and too violently to be explained by orbital factors.
Traffic is considered to be one of the biggest climate sinners. Supposed solutions to this problem are currently experiencing a veritable hype. At the same time, there is a hail of criticism: too little range, inadequate infrastructure and a horrendous CO2 footprint in the production of the batteries required. For this reason, we will be taking a closer look at the problems, changes and opportunities of CO2-neutral mobility in the coming articles.
Scientists predicted decades ago that human-induced climate change would lead to droughts, floods, species extinction and the loss of our habitat, among other things. To stop this development, a global climate protection agreement was reached in 2015.
The Paris Climate Agreement
At the Paris Climate Change Conference in December 2015, 195 countries agreed for the first time on a general, legally binding, global climate protection agreement.
The core of the agreement is to limit the increase in average global temperature to well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. This is intended to reduce the risks and consequences of climate change. Bringing about rapid emission reductions in line with the best available scientific evidence is central to achieving this goal.
To contribute to the Convention’s goals, countries have submitted comprehensive national action plans for reducing their emissions. For the first time, the EU has made a legal commitment to achieve the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. At the same time, a goal was defined to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent from 1990 levels by 2030.
For many individuals, the effects of warming are still intangible. Therefore, to quantify the damage, an estimate of the cost of the damage of warming by 2060 is used:
44 billion US dollars… an unimaginable sum. But how can Germany and Europe achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement and prevent this immense damage?
Traffic as a climate polluter
A study by T&E, the European association for transport and the environment, shows that transport is Europe’s largest source of CO2 and is responsible for emitting more than a quarter of all greenhouse gases.
According to the study, to meet the Paris climate targets for 2050, cars and vans must be fully decarbonized.
Several EU countries wrote to the EU Commission this month urging it to set a phase-out date for the sale of cars with gasoline and diesel engines. In Norway, new registrations of cars with internal combustion engines will no longer be possible as early as 2025. Meanwhile, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands are signaling an end to internal combustion engines from 2030. Transport Minister Scheuer is also announcing the end of the classic internal combustion engine: “Our goal must be to phase out the fossil internal combustion engine by 2035,” the German CSU politician told Welt am Sonntag a few days ago.
The highly touted alternatives to the internal combustion engine are called hydrogen and batteries. But many experts doubt the mass suitability of these forms of propulsion.
Are there possibly other, better and, above all, realistically feasible solutions apart from Tesla and Co.
To answer these questions, we will take a look at the EV market (EV = electric vehicle) in the next article and examine the advantages and disadvantages of the various concepts. In doing so, we will also give a first insight into the concept of a highly innovative German car manufacturer that does not specialize in either battery or hydrogen vehicles. Many will be familiar with the founder. Cue: Audi, Quattro, Apollo….
If you would like to learn more about the “revolution of the mobility industry made in Germany” right now, please feel free to contact us!
