Even if all vehicles were electric, climate change would still happen because fossil fuels are necessary for many other activities. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), transportation is responsible for only 14% of man-made GHG (greenhouse gases). Passenger cars are just a fraction of transportation emissions, reducing the impact a fleet of electric passenger cars could have even more. I wish IPCC had broken down all transportation elements and how they contribute to carbon emissions, but it didn’t.
Anyway, the panel helped to demonstrate why entities like T&E must consider the whole scenario before deciding what a climate solution is and what it is not. Most carbon emissions come from electricity and heat production (25%), followed by AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use), with 24%, and industrial activity (21%). That’s 70% of all fossil fuel use. Compare that to the less than 14% of emissions passenger cars generate, and you’ll stop believing cars are the evil guys in climate change. They’re not.
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