Sustainable Transport targets: Electrifying or a shock to the system? We ask if the ambitious European Union goals for Sustainable Transport are realistic. By Richard Forsyth
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o mitigate climate impacts, a sizable ‘elephant in the room’ is transport. Making transport sustainable is a mighty challenge, in terms of infrastructure, practicality, economics, investment and innovation. Given that we are unlikely to stop using transport for travel, shipping goods, business and pleasure, how is the EU looking to reshape the transport industry to swap out combustible fuel for electric power? The objective of the European Green Deal aims to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A major sector to overhaul to achieve this is the transport sector. The transport sector uses more than half of the global oil demand and creates a quarter of global CO2 emissions from fuel combustion. Transport contributes to 30% of the total CO2 emissions in the EU. Within the European transportation sector, road transport contributes 73% of EU CO2 emissions, followed by aviation at 13% and maritime, 11%. Rail has already championed electrification significantly, which means only 1.6%. Indeed, electric is hailed as the champion for an alternative source of sustainable energy for this sector. To accomplish the ‘holy grail’ of net zero emissions, we need to stop burning diesel and petrol and swap over to transport powered by electric batteries. It’s a huge undertaking and one that needs a coordinated and committed approach across European nations. Here we look at how Europe is preparing, planning and innovating to go electric across all our modes of transport.
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Charging Ahead Whilst they are increasingly more common on our roads (385,000 sold through Europe in 2018), electric vehicles are currently still perceived as a niche product, and you could argue this is in part is due to the sporadic supporting infrastructure. Current policy aims indicate that 33 million electric cars will be on the roads by 2030 and for a truly climate neutral scenario that rises to 44 million electric cars. That would require a huge rise in electric charging points. An EU policy framework for alternative fuels infrastructure seeks to address this need. At the end of 2019 there were 185,000 public charging points in the EU, which in terms of ratio, serves the current electric car market adequately (7 cars per charging point). With the ambitions for e-mobility high, this will need to rise. By 2030 there will be 3 million charging points needed, requiring and investment of 1.8 billion Euros in the year 2025, which equates to 3% of EUs annual investment in road transport infrastructure. As for the vehicles, car manufacturers have great motivation to develop electric car models as each country sets targets for zero emissions. Car manufacturers are now engaged in electric car innovations and developing new models, which is deemed necessary to remain competitive. The EU is set on stiff regulations, high taxes and even bans on fossil fuels in relatively tight timelines, so it is now a race to be ‘future-proof’ for car manufacturers. With the EU spelling out that electric is the future – and to compound this, they will be penalised
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