Reducing car use is a crucial way to reduce transport’s carbon emissions, the science and technology select committee told the U.K. government today. The cross-party group of MPs says switching from internal combustion engines to battery-powered engines is not the game-changing solution the government thinks it is.
And there’s little comfort in the report for electric bicycle fans either because the committee warns that the rare minerals required for electric vehicle batteries are fast running out and are sourced from unstable countries with dire records on workers’ rights.
“In the long-term, widespread personal vehicle ownership does not appear to be compatible with significant decarbonization,” says the blistering parliamentary report.
The government should “aim to reduce the number of vehicles required, for example by promoting and improving public transport; reducing its cost relative to private transport and encouraging vehicle usership in place of ownership,” add the MPs, stressing that the government ought to be “encouraging and supporting increased levels of walking and cycling.”
The government won’t meet its legally binding target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 if radical changes to the way we move do not happen, say the MPs.
“The government should not aim to achieve emissions reductions simply by replacing existing vehicles with lower-emission versions,” says the report.
"Clean Growth: Technologies for meeting the U.K.’s emissions reduction targets," published on August 22, highlights that the United States Geological Survey warns of a likely future shortage of the minerals required for electric vehicle batteries. Globally, there was an estimated 62 million tonnes of lithium, 25m tonnes of cobalt, over 800 million tonnes of graphite and at least 130 million tonnes of nickel that could be economically extracted which equates to just 30 years of car production at the current rate, but this supply could be adversely impacted by strife in the regions where the minerals are mined.
“As it stands, there are no significant lithium or cobalt mines online anywhere in Europe,” warns the U.S. Geological Survey leaving “many long-term supply questions in the context of a booming industry, unanswered.”
The select committee’s report adds that more than half of the world’s cobalt sources are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where mining can be poorly regulated and dangerous and is frequently carried out by children using hand tools.
Instead of relying on electric cars, the government should be investing more in public transit, walking and cycling, say the MPs.
“The Government should not aim to achieve emissions reductions simply by replacing existing vehicles with lower-emission versions,” warn the MPs saying instead it must “develop a strategy to stimulate a low-emissions transport system, with the metrics and targets to match [including] encouraging and supporting increased levels of walking and cycling.”
Among a list of ten “clean growth” measures that are needed urgently, the MPs say the ban on sales of petrol and diesel cars should be brought forward to 2035 or sooner, rather than the current target of 2040. Other proposed measures include financial incentives for energy-efficient homes and greater use of technology to capture and store carbon.
