But they are a step in the right direction
Many view electric vehicles, and Tesla in particular, to be a major part of the solution to a carbon-neutral society.
EVs can be charged, don’t require gas, and just feel like the environmentally friendly answer to transportation. Why is this?
The narrative has been solely about the benefits of driving electric. And I want to state clearly that EVs are a more climate-friendly option than gas-powered vehicles.
While no greenhouse gas emissions come directly from electric vehicles, their production and power are still largely made using fossil fuels.
Consider for a second where electricity comes from. Yes, there is a slight portion that comes from clean energy like wind, solar, and geothermal. However, in many countries, including the United States, coal and natural gas continue to be the dominating sources for producing electricity.
That means that if you are charging your EV with the grid, there are still emissions involved.
We need to increase the adoption of clean energy generation and make it easily accessible.
As of 2016, the transportation sector makes up 16.2% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, which is behind only energy use in industry (24.2%), agriculture, forestry, and land use (18.4%), and energy use in buildings (17.5%).
The world cannot attempt to slow or even reverse climate change without strategizing around both energy generation and consumption. A lot of the focus tends to be on consumption and not generation.
In Tesla’s case, manufacturing a battery can emit more carbon than manufacturing the average gas-powered vehicle.
This is because manufacturing lithium-ion batteries is relatively carbon-intensive, especially when the factories largely run on fossil fuels like they all currently do (including Tesla’s).
An important distinction between fossil fuels and lithium-ion batteries for EVs is that fossil fuels are single-use and the materials in the batteries are recyclable. However, just because they are technically recyclable doesn’t mean it’s feasible. Battery materials are refined and placed into a cell and remain there through the end of the vehicle’s life. It is currently very difficult to extract these materials and use them for another purpose. We are still waiting on a breakthrough in large-scale recycling for EV batteries.
As things sit right now, EVs are not the answer to a carbon-free future. There are high emissions created in the manufacturing process, local grids are disproportionately powered by fossil fuels, and recycling is extremely inefficient. If we are to move towards a carbon-neutral (or free) society, businesses need to be held accountable, especially the ones that are claiming to drive the move towards renewable energy.
So why is the narrative lacking the need for quickly transitioning to clean energy for electricity generation? Transparency is a huge issue. But that’s changing.
Tesla released its first sustainability report in 2019. Previously, the company did not release enough details about the production of its vehicles or the sourcing of its materials for consumers to have any gauge on how sustainable those processes were. This is a huge deal as users and critics are now able to hold the company accountable for the work that it does.
I hope that as more vehicle manufacturers offer electric options, the advocacy for clean energy adoption increases.
Ultimately, if Tesla (or any other car manufacturer) truly wants to accelerate the world’s transition to renewable energy, it needs to dedicate a portion of its efforts to the energy generation conversation.
See you next time.
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