The solar revolution has come on so fast in recent years, along with the battery technology that enables electric vehicles, that not even the lead transport author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted it.
Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, Peter Newman, has been part of the transport and cities team for the IPCC for the last 12 years. For the last 5 he’s been the team’s lead author.
Professor Newman told the SwitchedOn podcast that in contrast to the grim scenarios of climate disaster the IPCC has painted for some years, he is now hopeful, even excited by what we can do to turn things around.
“The price of [solar, wind and batteries] has dropped to such an extent that solar and wind power is now the cheapest the world has ever seen, and all the other factors are lining up.”
“The IPCC did not see this happening so quickly…. once the Paris Agreement was set in place, we realised that the changes were coming as much from the world of finance, business and industry, and from ordinary households and small businesses, who were getting on and doing this change much quicker than anything governments were trying to help us with.”
Transport accounts for about a fifth of the world’s carbon emissions, and except for aviation and shipping which he says will need hydrogen-based fuels, Newman says that all other forms of transport can be electrified.
However, he cautions that the transport transition shouldn’t only be about swapping our internal combustion cars for electric versions – that will just perpetuate the social and equity issues already endemic in our car-dependent towns and cities.
“We can’t make cities built around a car even if they’re electric. We will ruin our cities. We have to have places that are people oriented and walkable, with lots of electric bikes and electric micro mobility in general.”
“The problem is not the car or the automobile … it is automobile dependence. We should not have to depend on a car for our daily and local or regional transport needs.”
To read more of this article, please go to the original story on our SwitchedOn sister site that is focused on all manner of electrification. You can also hear the full interview with Peter Newman on the SwitchedOn Australia podcast here.
