What we can do to reduce greenhouse gases

 

Do cows farting and car exhausts have anything in common? They both produce greenhouse gases, which add to the heating up of the world’s atmosphere, thus causing global warming.

There’s a chance of reversing the heating up if we modify our lifestyles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The big question is whether we can adjust.

The adjustments would include motoring with less CO2 emissions, eating more plant-based food instead of beef steaks, and minimising wasteful consumption. Depending on our level of wealth, all of us in our own ways can modify our lifestyles to accommodate the changes that the scientists recommend.

On a national level, we should start to organise ceremonies with decarbonisation as a KPI.

Governments should identify emission goals and leave the carmakers to develop the appropriate technologies.

Non-tax incentives should be introduced immediately on the federal and state level. These include investment in a network of public charging locations and off-peak charging at lower electricity rates.

An immediate start is needed on a “right to charge” law where apartment dwellers are allowed to install charging stations and pay for their own EV charging.

On a corporate level, management should fit fleet tracking systems to minimise unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions such as field staff snatching naps in the vehicle with the air-conditioning on.

In these times of monumental changes, we should listen to other narratives. One friend said that he overheard his kids and their friends talking about global warming and how they would escape to Mars on a Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk rocket.

Or it could be as simple as listening to your daughter prompting you to eat more beansprouts than chicken when ordering chicken rice.

It should have been expected that world leaders meeting for COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, for 12 days this month would not have reached a tidy agreement among all parties because the spectrum of participants was inclusive of parties with opposing positions whether they were nations, car manufacturers, or NGOs.

But at least, the COP26 assembly of nations decided that the situation was so pressing that they would meet next year and annually, rather than every 5 years.

Let’s look at the positions of the nations and why they won’t wholeheartedly support a climate change agreement.

Perhaps Russia with half its land in permafrost might be better off with a warmer climate than say, the Pacific islanders, who would be flooded out by 2030.

The position of carmakers is similarly non-congruent and you will notice that the world’s three biggest carmakers have abstained from signing a climate pledge in contrast to four smaller makers who have committed to work towards Zero Emissions by 2035 or earlier.

Toyota, the world’s biggest auto manufacturer, is now pressing on with hydrogen fuel cell Zero-Emission technology after missing the battery electric vehicle era, in which South Korea and China are at the forefront.

Some carmakers are also lobbying to prolong the era of internal combustion engines with the use of hydrogen directly as a fuel to replace petrol or diesel. They are playing for more R&D time to reduce the cost of producing hydrogen while grieving that some environmental organisations are lobbying to demote hydrogen’s status as a green fuel when it is derived from hydropower dams carved from natural forests.

VW didn’t sign but its investment budget for electrification is at the top among the auto industry and signals its genuine intention on the corporate front. It could also be that its labour union representative, the Works Council, is concerned that the rise of EV’s will threaten traditional jobs in Germany where the automotive sector is the largest employer.

While the labour union is fighting to preserve the jobs involved in the manufacturing of cars powered by internal combustion engines, the benchmark is the Tesla plant in Shanghai which rolls out one Tesla car every 10 hours, compared to one in 30 hours in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Among the lessons that we should take to heart from COP26 is that there must be sincerity in advocating for climate change adjustments.

US President Joe Biden, who attended the G20 summit in Rome on the eve of COP26 in Glasgow, was accompanied by a cavalcade of 85 SUVs and limousines. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.