Flickr/Luc Mercelis
The overwhelming majority of cars built today depend on fossil fuels.
Global Citizen By Joe
McCarthy
You
won’t be able to drive a car that runs on gasoline or diesel in
France beyond the year 2040, according to the country’s new
environmental minister, Nicolas Hulot.
The
decision will accelerate France’s transition to a carbon-neutral
society by 2050, and it continues president Emmanuel Macron’s
elevation of environmental initiatives since he took office earlier
this year.
During
a press conference, Hulot also said that France will stop using coal
to produce electricity by 2022, more than $4.5 billion will be spent
to improve energy efficiency, nuclear power will be scaled back, and
that imports of products that drive deforestation like palm oil will
be ended.
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"We
want to demonstrate that fighting against climate change can lead to
an improvement of French people's daily lives," he said.
Announcing
the car ban more than two decades ahead of schedule is meant to give
automakers enough time to adapt and consumers enough time to prepare.
Even
still, the decision is ambitious.
The
overwhelming majority of cars built today depend on fossil fuels.
But
that’s beginning to change as automakers improve technologies,
prices for electric vehicles come down, and countries around the
world push for greater sustainability measures.
Further,
an even vaster majority of the cars in operation today are fossil
fuel-powered. Getting these cars off the road for good will be
challenging, but the French government said that it is prepared to
provide subsidies to poorer households as they make the switch to
electric vehicles.
Going
after cars could make a huge impact in the fight against climate
change. After all, the transportation sector accounts for 14% of
global emissions, according
to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Other
countries are going after cars as well.
The
US, which is largest market for cars in the world, has enacted
escalating emissions standards for cars. In China, the government
is investing
heavily in electric vehicle infrastructure.
Germany and India want all new cars to be electric by 2030, and the
Netherlands and Norway want to hit that target by 2025.
With
so much pressure at the national level to get rid of car emissions,
automakers might see electric vehicles as the only viable path
forward.
And
if that happens, France probably won’t be dealing with much air
pollution anymore.
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