Page 6 - European Energy Innovation - autumn 2018 publication
P. 6
6 Autumn 2018 European Energy Innovation
FOSSIL FREE TRANSPORT
The future of fossil free
transport is not technology
neutral
By Kathleen Van Brempt (pictured), Member of the European Parliament
The European transport The same goes for offshore wind and However, these benefits will not
sector is responsible for many other clean technologies. To get emerge to the same extent in all
around one quarter of such technologies over the “valley of possible policy scenarios. Scenarios
EU’s total greenhouse gas death”, some of them need a larger that rely more on existing combustion
emissions and remains the only R&D driven technology push and engines on biofuels, cheaper
major European economic sector more demand creating market pull. produced outside Europe, can equally
in which GHG emissions have However, once they crossed the valley deliver greenhouse gas reductions.
increased. Congestion costs are rising between the development stage and But they will still leak capital abroad.
and the air in many of our cities market commercialisation, move The same goes for electrification
stays polluted. To cope with all our forward on the “learning curve” and based on large batteries requiring
societal challenges, we need a more enjoy economies of scale, they often enormous amounts of lithium and
electrified, decarbonised, energy outperform existing technologies. cobalt. We may not just exchange the
efficient, multimodal and clean Specific support for some highly role of foreign fossil fuels suppliers by
transport sector and a just transition potential technologies at early stages foreign battery suppliers that keeps
along the whole automotive value of development might therefor be us equally dependent on imports.
chain. justifiable. That, for instance, is the
case with zero-emission electric cars Thirdly, technology neutrality
It is often said that in cleaning up the that will play an indispensable role in does not allow us to take proper
transport sector, politicians should the decarbonisation of the transport account of collateral benefits or
only agree on the final targets for CO2 sector, at a total cost of ownership collateral damages caused by certain
reduction and polluting emissions in that over time will be lower than technologies. Cars with internal
a technology neutral way and leave those of a traditional combustion combustion engines that are running
it up to the market to figure out how engine. on advanced biofuels might lead to
these targets can be met. But, there the same greenhouse gas savings,
are many arguments against a “policy Secondly, technological neutrality but are still emitting polluting
by objectives” approach. makes us blind for the macro- nitrogen oxides and particulates and
economic strategic impacts of keep on producing engine noise.
First, under “technology neutral” our policy choices. Decarbonising On the contrary, electric cars have
policies new technologies with transport is not only of utmost multiple benefits in all these fields
enormous long-term potential might importance to deliver on our climate and can help us to meet our climate
never develop. Look for instance at objectives. Each day the EU spends goals and air quality standards at the
solar panels. Today, they are one of around one billion € on imported same time.
the cheapest ways to produce power. fossil fuels coming from geopolitically
However, at start photovoltaic energy instable regions. By transitioning to Finally, running cars on “advanced
was more expensive than other ways cost effective renewable power and biofuels” or electrofuels produced
to produce renewable power. electric cars, Europe will spend more from surpluses of renewable power
money on clean technology produced might lead to the same greenhouse
If countries like Germany and Spain at home and sending less money to gas reductions. However, since
had not supported PV so fiercely in fossil fuel producers overseas. This these fuels are depending on limited
a non-technology neutral way, solar will strengthen our competitiveness feedstock, using them for cars makes
technology wouldn’t have matured. and create millions of new jobs. them no longer available for other
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