Cars are a small part of total emissions. if any country wants to solve CO2 problem they have to work on Electric first. unfortunately most pick cars because it is easy and people see them.
The US has exceeded not only their own commitments but those set for EU. However they have done it in a way that is short term very impressive but long term will cause major problems. They have only converted a small part of generation to wind and solar. They have converted many plants from coal 346 KG CO2 / MWH to NG 202 KG CO2 / MWH Some of new Gas turbine plants are as low as 150 KG . MWH, the 202 is a world average for all plants. Un-fortunately most of these plants are constructed with an expected life time of 50 to 75 years. This means large loses if they are scrapped in this century which will slow their replacement. Causing US to fail badly in future. Unfortunately EU and many other countries plan to follow US lead using NG for coal. Bill Gates in his recent book took a whole chapter to show why it was better to leave the coal in place till Carbon free methods could replacing them. Focus on 2055 not 2030.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions Factor, kg CO₂ per MWh (ourworldindata.org)
U.S. Carbon (CO2) Emissions 1960-2021 | MacroTrends
Electric power sector CO2 emissions drop as generation mix shifts from coal to natural gas - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
29 % of all CO2 comes from transportation 25% from electric generation 23 % from industry burning stuff for heat. Examples steal and concrete production, which are the fastest growing sources of CO2.
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions
https://usafacts.org/articles/transportation-now-largest-source-greenhouse-gas-emissions/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20report%2C%20the%20largest%20sources%20of,relatively%20small%20share%2C%20at%207%25%20of%20transportation-related%20emissions.
Cars are 13% of total transportation emissions trucks are 8% a total of 21 % of transportation. Transportation is 29% so cars at .13 X .29 = 4 % of total WW emissions. Every thing is important but lets keep things in perspective.
Many sources of CO2 will change to Electric many estimates say electric could supply over 75% of our energy needs as we try to reduce emissions. Simplest one to understand is replacing fossil fuels to heat our homes offices and factors with heat pumps running from shallow ground heat and cooling. My 98% NG furnace emits about as much CO2 as both my cars combined ( in retirement we have become low mileage drivers). EVs is part of solution until we clean up electric it will not help nearly as much as people think. Using to days grid power still emits a lot. JMO we Do need Wind and solar and where available Hydro and geo thermal. WE also need a baseline generating capability. The only solution I see is nuclear. We should not build any more enriched Uranium pressurized water reactors. These are dangerous and create long lived nuclear waste. They go by many names but traveling wave, liquid metal cooled reactors are safer since they shut down when cooling or control is loss with no intervention. You have to up the cooling to get more power out. Shut down cooling the power decreases rapidly. You can ramp them up and down much faster than reactors we have today. still days but not weeks & months. They Burn either Depleted Uranium DU or thorium as fuel and waste is short lived. 100s of years, not 10,000s. Just a note many REE people like to talk about Thorium fuel as a solution for REE mines with lots of thorium, like Stein in SA or Ucore in Alaska. This will probably never happen. DU is what is left over from making enriched uranium for reactors and bombs. It only needs minor processing to be a fuel. Thorium in the ground is expensive to turn into fuel grade. It is estimated that there is already enough depleted uranium in storage in the world to meet all electric needs for the world for the next 200 years. The US has enough at 4 sites to meet its needs for 400 years, I hope we share. We are still making DU for both reactor rods and bomb replacement material. We are not making new bombs but most people do not realize that bomb grade enrich material decays very quickly and needs to be replaced fairly often. Most countries take the old material from a bomb Mix it with depleted uranium and make fuel rods with it for reactors. Recharge the Bomb with brand new highly enriched uranium. .
If we want to cut Co2 emissions EVs are part of the solution. Even if there was no ice vehicles if batteries charging is grid electric then that reduces WW emissions by about 1%~ 2% with Curent Co2 emissions from Electric. We clean up electric power and the Gas & oil we burn to heat our building can be replaced by ground water heat pumps. Many industrial processes could change from Fossil fuels to Electric. Any one that thinks EVs replacing ICE without major work and money in other areas will help more than a few percent just has not studied the problem. US in using NG for Coal has made great strides. It has put a mile stone around our neck's for achieving carbon neutrality in this century.
If you want your Lynas stock to go up lobby for EV vehicles. You want to save the world for you grandchildren and Great grand children lobby for cleaning up Electric generation. I would love to hear others ideas of how we can make significant CO2 reductions in the world with out first making major cuts in Electric Generation emissions.
In growing countries like China and India Cars are becoming very popular many smaller countries in the world as well. This growth makes EVs much more important. I get that. But planes like Biden's current one for US with lots of focus on EVs and little on much bigger areas just are not a long term solutions. It is a simplistic solution. A solution people can understand that does not help much. Still 100 % better than anything Trump proposed.
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