The worlds leading scientific body on climate change emphasizes the urgent need to limit carbon emissions to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. In order to have a 50% chance of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, we can only emit 500 billion metric tons more of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Fords global car sales from last year alone will result in greenhouse gas emissions higher than Taiwans annual emissions.
Phasing out gas-powered cars is crucial in preventing catastrophic consequences, such as the demise of ice shelves in Antarctica. Despite the impact of some of the U.S.’s largest car companies on global emissions, recent headlines suggest they are facing unexpected challenges in transitioning to all-electric vehicles. If these companies renege on their commitments to electric vehicles, the planet could face even greater risks from climate change. The world has already warmed by 1 degree, highlighting the urgency of action.
Since the Industrial Revolution, the Earth’s temperature has risen by 1 degree Celsius, or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, due to the increased burning of fossil fuels. This warming trend, if allowed to continue unchecked, could lead to catastrophic consequences such as rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and extreme heatwaves. To prevent such outcomes, the Paris Agreement was drafted in 2015 with the goal of limiting emissions. According to the Agreement, the world must strive to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. If this ambitious target is not achievable, the aim is to limit warming to under 2 degrees Celsius.
Many automakers have committed to going all-electric by a specific future date due to the tightening regulations and calculations involving two crucial numbers. Car companies like General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen have set goals such as transitioning to all-electric vehicles by 2035, 2030, and the 2030s, respectively. In addition to these, some car manufacturers have also promised to introduce a combination of hybrids or hydrogen vehicles in their efforts to reduce emissions. The current trajectory suggests that it will be a challenge to stay under 2 degrees based on the latest developments.
The world’s leading scientific body on climate change emphasizes the urgent need to limit carbon emissions to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. In order to have a 50% chance of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, we can only emit 500 billion metric tons more of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This target increases slightly to 1,350 billion metric tons for a 2-degree Celsius limit, but the margin for error remains slim. The question arises: how will efforts to electrify transportation sectors contribute to reducing emissions, and what happens if car companies resist or cancel these initiatives due to regulatory changes?
It really brings home the significance of transitioning to electric vehicles when one looks at the amount of emissions produced by U.S. carmakers from selling gas-powered cars each year. Gas-powered vehicles make up a large portion of global greenhouse gas emissions, with 75% of it coming from them. Removing these vehicles from the road will play a crucial role in staying within the global carbon budget, as global transport accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The sheer magnitude of these numbers can sometimes make it hard to grasp the overall picture in climate discussions.
Transportation is currently the number one source of carbon emissions in the U . One of the world’s top polluters, America contributes a significant portion of these emissions. Some of the country’s most notable brands, such as General Motors and Ford, have had a significant impact on these numbers. Emissions from these big automakers can be divided into three categories, referred to in corporate climate-speak as “scopes”.
Scope 1 emissions are from sources a business directly owns, such as company gas-powered cars. On the other hand, Scope 2 emissions arise from the energy a company purchases to fuel its operations. These emissions are typically straightforward for a business to calculate and include in a corporate sustainability report.
The final category, Scope 3 emissions, is produced by factors beyond the company’s control, such as business travel, employee commuting, and customer use of products or services like cars driven off a dealer’s lot. Calculating this portion of Scope 3 emissions can be challenging for many industries.
Automakers approach the issue of emissions by calculating the total greenhouse gases emitted by their cars, the number of cars sold, and the average miles driven per car throughout its lifespan. Many of the leading polluters, including car manufacturers, hesitate to disclose their Scope 3 emissions, which can surpass Scope 1 and 2 emissions by a large margin. Despite the lack of federal regulations mandating transparency, some companies like Mercedes Benz only include Scope 1 and 2 emissions in their sustainability reports.
In recent years, public and investor pressure has forced many big companies to address the climate crisis. Some notable good actors, such as Polestar, have been transparent about their emissions in sustainability reports. For example, Ford reported in 2022 that the Scope 3 emissions from the 4.2 million cars it sold worldwide accounted for approximately 319,568,185 metric tons of CO2 equivalents (CO2e). The numbers released by some automakers have been truly eye-opening.
Ford’s global car sales from last year alone will result in greenhouse gas emissions higher than Taiwan’s annual emissions. GM, on the other hand, disclosed that the emissions from cars sold in 2022 were 208.6 million metric tons of CO2e, nearly matching Ukraine’s total emissions for the previous year. To put it into perspective, the combined sales of Ford and GM from last year alone will produce more greenhouse gases than Vietnam’s entire population of 97 million did last year. These figures are extremely significant.
A report issued last year estimated that the world’s carmakers are under-reporting their Scope 3 emissions by as much as 50%, suggesting the actual number is much higher. Just one or two companies can release hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each sales year. In light of this, the 500 billion-ton carbon budget may not be as huge as previously thought. Even if every automaker switched to all EVs tomorrow, emissions wouldn’t drop to zero. This is because electric vehicles have their own associated emissions, which depend on the type of energy provided on the grid they’re plugged into and the production involved in EV and battery production.
Automakers such as Ford and GM are undeniably large parts of the global decarbonization pie. They can still make significant strides in reducing emissions by improving efficiency in gas-powered cars and rolling out hybrid models. What they produce matters on a scale that has few parallels with other consumer goods companies. Eliminating the bulk of their Scope 3 emissions, as their EV transition timelines intended to do, would have huge consequences for the world’s carbon budgets.
In recent weeks, Ford has announced that it would be pausing some substantial investments in its EV transition, including a battery factory in Kentucky. Meanwhile, GM’s plan to ramp up electric vehicle sales over the next decade and go all-electric by 2035, the company predicted last year, will lower its Scope 3 emissions by nearly 80% by the mid-2030s. This goal will mostly be achieved by eliminating gas-powered cars in favor of electric ones. GM CEO Mary Barra assured investors that the company was still committed to its 2035 target, but would be walking back certain sales targets and cutting costs elsewhere. It’s important to note that this is a long-term solution, as few others exist for the millions of gas cars currently on the road that will be in service for decades to come.
The carmakers and auto industry have been expressing loud complaints about the slow sales of electric vehicles. Despite claiming to support the transition to electric vehicles and environmental conservation, they argue that new policies and regulations are moving too quickly. They believe politicians should show some sympathy by allowing them to continue selling gas-powered cars for a little longer. However, in November alone, Ford achieved record sales for electric vehicles, indicating a growing trend in the industry. Interestingly, automakers continue to flood the market with large and costly electric SUVs while neglecting other more affordable vehicle options that consumers are interested in purchasing.
GM and Ford, two American automakers known for their focus on large gas-powered trucks and SUVs, are seen to be slowing down their EV goals. According to Chris Harto, a senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports, automakers are facing a dilemma regarding electric vehicles. They struggle to make profits on EVs at low volume, but in order to increase volume, they need to lower prices. This creates a challenging situation where automakers have to take a leap of faith. Currently, they are losing money on the EVs they are selling, making it hard to fully commit. This continued hesitation adds a new time-related aspect to the climate considerations.
This decade and the next have been highlighted by scientists as crucial for reducing carbon emissions. Earth’s critical ecosystems, such as the Antarctic ice sheets that prevent glaciers from melting into the sea and the world’s permafrost that stores CO2, are at risk of collapsing due to rising temperatures, which could accelerate the current levels of warming.
Automakers such as Ford and GM are continuing to emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere through the cars they produce. This could lead to a disastrous turning point if the world continues to warm at its current rate. They must stop stalling on the development of electric cars, despite what their shareholders may prefer to hear. In reality, there is no time to waste in reducing their massive individual emissions.
The urgency of phasing out gas-powered cars to prevent catastrophic consequences, such as the demise of ice shelves in Antarctica, is highlighted as the world has already warmed by 1 degree. Major car companies like General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen are facing challenges in transitioning to all-electric vehicles, with the need to reach ambitious emissions reduction targets to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. The slow progress in transitioning to electric vehicles by automakers like Ford and GM poses a significant risk to the planet if emissions continue at current levels
