Should Policymakers Promote Electric Vehicles and Other Elements of Electrification in Areas with Carbon-Intensive Electricity Supply?

Abstract

Chapter 10 argues that fossil fuels have been the most significant tool in humanity’s pursuit of technological development and advancement from the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Unfortunately, our utilisation of fossil fuels, has resulted in a terribly drastic reaction by our planet. At the tail end of the 20th century, anthropologic climate change attributed to global warming was finally acknowledged as a significant issue that is negatively affecting the planet, its ecosystems and humanity, and if measures are not urgently undertaken to mitigate or eliminate its cause, the consequences will be disastrous. It took about two and half decades and the sidelining of various failed international climate change agreements before the global community could finally reach a consensus on sacrifices required so as to stem the negative effects of climate change. One of the key goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change is the limiting of global warming to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels to ensure sustainability for our planet, its ecosystems, and humanity. Methods that have been proposed to reach the daunting target include the decarbonization of the energy supply, increasing the use of electrification in our technology, promoting the use of alternative fuels, obtaining greater energy efficiency, and adopting behavioural changes in our lifestyles as well as how we eventually utilise the planet’s resources. Of the above, it appears that electrification is one of the most utilised solutions that many policymakers have since advocated in their struggles to attain their prescribed nationally determined contributions under the auspices of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The question is: should policymakers continue or do more to promote electrification over the other proposed solutions, and will the electrification solution suffice in our fight against climate change?