Emissions targets need all-electric cars

(Eco Business, 21 Sep 2016) Cutting emissions to meet the internationally-agreed limits on global temperature rise will require an end soon to all fossil-fuelled cars.

A new study says that achieving limits on temperature rise agreed at last year’s Paris climate conference will require a massive switch to zero emissions electric-powered vehicles (EVs), coupled with the development of a completely decarbonised power sector.

The transport sector – cars, trucks, planes and trains – accounts for about 14 per cent of total climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions . But the study by Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an independent scientific analysis organisation, focuses on the car sector.

“Without swift and extensive deployment of electric vehicles powered by clean electricity, reductions [in emissions] from the transport sector will not be enough to meet the more stringent long-term goals of the Paris Agreement – that is, limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C,” the report says.