2050: What the future would look like if all cars were carbon neutral.
Thinking about what the world would look like in 2050 can be both daunting and promising. Daunting because of the uncertainty of what the future may hold and promising because of the opportunities which may be available to us.
Despite the economic and environmental challenges we are currently living in, it would be wise to think about and stay hopeful on the “what if’s” and “why’s”.
We can be certain about one thing, however. Investing in sustainable practices for the future is crucial. The expansion of recycling over the last two decades has gathered many benefits worldwide in reducing carbon emissions, preserving natural resources and protecting vulnerable ecosystems. And another sustainable investment which we think could even do more is the increasing traction of electric vehicles.
Several studies have been published on electric vehicle adoption and the benefits certainly appear to outweigh the drawbacks which come with manufacturing electric vehicles. Although (currently) manufacturing electric vehicles produces more net carbon emissions than manufacturing petrol vehicles, petrol vehicles have a far greater carbon footprint over the full life cycle of the vehicle. Each petrol vehicle emits an average of 4.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year and are responsible for 20% of carbon dioxide emissions in the US alone. Get the picture?
So what would a full electric car future in 2050 look like?
A recent study published by researchers at Nottingham Trent University suggested that if all cars in the UK were to go electric by 2050, total carbon emissions would drop by 12%. With the UK’s plan to ban petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and target to reach net zero carbon by 2050, the prospect of seeing a future where all cars are carbon neutral by 2050 appears to be quite near.
But let’s not kid ourselves, the UK and other countries have a long way to go to reach these goals.
However, the tectonic shifts in the vehicle landscape will still be significant by the count of more objective data trackers. Statistics published by Statista show that global car sales in 2019 for gasoline (petrol) were 78%, with electric vehicles amounting to a total of 8%. Their projections are that global petrol/diesel car sales will drop to 44% by 2030 and electric vehicles are forecasted to make up 51% of global sales.
So in short, we don’t have a crystal ball into 2020, but sizable shifts will happen in this decade in order to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. More research is certainly being undertaken to facilitate this, but as global citizens the small investments we make to sustainable practices can amount to larger environmental benefits.
Here’s a great illustration released by GreenPeace this week on the past & current issues with #carlife and what the future of cars could look like. Enjoy!
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ChargeBound is a company dedicated to encouraging UK drivers to go electric. Our mission is to eliminate car passenger emissions in the UK and get us closer to being carbon neutral. To find out more about what we do, check out ChargeBound’s website.
This article was researched and written by our good friend Samrawit Elias.
Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash
