The road to managing greenhouse gas emissions from the automotive sector comes not from putting everyone in an electric car but by improving and increasing public transport options and reducing individual car dependency.
The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) has published a report showing the planned increase in ‘gigafactories’ to produce these power units will consume vast amounts of non-renewable resources, predominantly extracted in the global South.
Electric vehicles are often touted as a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to traditional petrol-powered cars. While this is generally true, manufacturing batteries that power electric vehicles is not without its environmental costs and concerns.
First and foremost, the production of electric vehicle batteries is energy-intensive and requires the use of a significant number of resources. The materials used in battery production, such as lithium and cobalt, are finite resources and must be mined from the earth. The mining process can be environmentally damaging and negatively impact local communities.
Additionally, the battery manufacturing process releases greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the environment. For example, producing lithium-ion batteries requires large amounts of energy, resulting in significant carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, the production of batteries relies on toxic chemicals and can generate hazardous waste.
Another concern is the end-of-life management of batteries. Electric vehicle batteries have a limited lifespan. While many battery manufacturers are working on developing more efficient and sustainable recycling processes, the reality is that many end up in landfills or incinerators, potentially causing harm to the environment and public health.
Finally, there is the issue of the socioeconomic impacts of battery production. Most of the world's lithium reserves are in countries such as Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina. Extracting lithium in these countries has led to conflicts over land rights, water resources, and indigenous rights. In addition, the production of batteries is concentrated in a few countries, creating economic and political dependencies on these nations.
The expectation is for the production capacity of the growing number of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery gigafactories to increase almost eightfold between 2021 and 2031, mainly in the US, the EU, and China. Many involve big-name car companies such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla, whose motivation is to increase the consumption of personal vehicles.
“Electric vehicles are part of the solution to climate change. But the size and sheer volume of planned EV production are not sustainable,” says SOMO expert Alejandro González. “We cannot consume our way to a cleaner, greener future. We need fewer cars, smaller cars, and more sustainable public transport options. This should be at the core of EU energy transition policy.”
The New Batteries Regulation is among a suite of policies underpinning the EU’s approach to the energy transition. Later this month, the EU will publish its Critical Raw Materials Act, a draft law intending to ensure the EU can access the minerals needed to support renewable energy and transport.
The EU aims to shift power in its favour in critical supply chains for the new oil and gas. The EU’s approach pays lip service to reduce the extraction demand for new raw materials. But this is belied by its efforts to increase EU access to the minerals and focusing on using trade and development policies as leverage.
“The EU is regulating batteries with one hand but driving demand for minerals for the same batteries with the other; this is incoherent as a policy and continues to treat resource-rich countries like Argentina, Chile, DRC, and Indonesia as mere sources of materials,” says González.
EVs will predominantly hit markets in the US, Europe and China in the next seven years and exclude the rest of the world. Commentators on the energy and transport transition have noted that this two-tier picture of haves and have-nots adds new dimensions of global inequality.
“The EU has an opportunity to avoid being responsible for driving abuses and deep inequality in the energy transition. But that opportunity is slipping away,” adds González. “A fundamental shift in the EU’s paradigm is necessary, fostering a vision of transport that does not involve near-universal personal vehicle ownership in the European region.”
Current sustainability policies in the European Union do little to address the underlying problem of unsustainable consumption. Under the present transition, despite the introduction of EVs, the global fleet of vehicles (including petrol and diesel cars) is forecast to continue to grow. With more vehicles on the road, it is unlikely that the transport sector can reduce global emissions to the levels needed to limit global warming to the 1,5°C or even 2°C scenarios.
Although energy transition in the automotive sector is imperative, EU, US and China governing policies make it seem out of reach. However, EVs remain a viable solution to the damage caused by fossil fuel engines, hence the need for a swift shift to electric vehicles. Governments must encourage sustainability in the automotive sector by adjusting policy and making budgetary provisions.
