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One car less. Photo: ©Shutterstock – Michael Kraus

We don’t just need electric cars, we need fewer cars says Greenpeace

May 2018

Ever since the first production car rolled off the assembly line more than 100 years ago, our love affair with automobiles has grown and grown. In countries like the UK, France, Italy and Germany there are now around 5 vehicles for every 10 people. In the USA, Australia and New Zealand, the number is higher still. With the cost of electric vehicles set to plummet over the next decade, many car firms now admit that the future is an electric one. But will this be enough? Shouldn’t we also be asking ourselves if we need so many cars in the first place?

Our vision: Though the rise of electric cars should be celebrated, a truly sustainable transport system isn’t just about ditching fossil fuel vehicles. It’s about building more cycle lanes, and supporting schemes to get people on bikes in the first place. It’s about constructing roads which encourage a more diverse range of travel – cycling, electric scooters and cargo bikes – instead of so heavily favouring cars. It’s about mass transport that runs on clean energy and is affordable and easy for everyone to use. And it’s about all of us – citizens, politicians, and businesses – playing a part in making it happen.

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/13968/we-dont-just-need-e...

Road traffic

EU ship sulphur directive scrutinized

Sulphur emissions from ships in northern Europe have come down significantly, resulting in health and environmental improvements in coastal regions and port cities.

Editorial: Everyone's right to clean air

Evidence of the health hazards posed by air pollutants is clear and unambiguous. Air pollution particularly affects vulnerable groups such as infants, children, the elderly and ...

Photo: Flickr.com / James Alby CC BY-ND

Photo: Flickr.com / Norayr Chilingarian CC BY-NC

Wind and solar can be integrated into the grid

There are strategies to manage variablity in electricity generation. A succesful example is Denmark, which somtimes produces more than half of its electricity from wind and solar.

Solar was absolutely insignificant as a source of electricity in 2005, but by 2015 it produced 108 TWh. Photo: © Shutterstock – Sonpichit SalangsinG

Renewables are rolling out rapidly

Between 2005 and 2015 wind power grew fourfold and solar by a factor of 72 in the EU. But this growth is very unevenly spread in the EU and in wider Europe.

Limits to achieving “4 per 1000” target

Increasing carbon stocks in agricultural soils is promoted as a climate mitigation practice. Scientists show that the potential in Europe might be overestimated.

Photo: Flickr.com / Matthias Ripp CC BY

Photo: Flickr.com / Dan Davis CC BY

Savings threat to a more sustainable agriculture

Less funding for environmental measures and increased flexibility for member states are bleak, but likely expectations of a post-2020 Common Agriculural Policy (CAP).

Photo: Flickr.com / Joan Nova CC BY-NC-ND

Eating healthily and sustainably

Reducing meat and calories is a win-win for health and the environment. An optimised Low Lands diet is a Dutch concept to make the transition more culturally acceptable.

IMO adopts greenhouse gas strategy for shipping

While the EU pushed for emission cuts of 70–100 per cent by 2050, the final global agreement settled for a target of “at least 50 per cent”.

Photo: © Shutterstock – Av Larina Marin

Photo: Flickr.com / Friends of the Earth Scotland CC BY

Diesels in low-emission zones?

More than 90 per cent of Euro 6 diesel cars on sale today don’t meet the EU emission limits on the road but are still exempt from low-emission zones or diesel bans.

People’s Climate Solidarity March Minnesota, US. Photo: Flickr.com /FiboNacci Blue CC BY

CO2 makes up 81 per cent of US greenhouse gases

The website of the US EPA presents an inventory of GHG emissions for 1990 to 2016, but web pages containing detailed climate analysis were removed one year ago.

Germany still constructing new coal power stations

Several countries in Europe, among them Germany, have recently built or are planning to build new coal power stations. Some examples of such plants are presented here.

Illustration: © Shutterstock – Alzbeta and © Shutterstock – HarRock

Carbon dioxide concentrations have been measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory since 1958. Photo: Flickr.com – John Game CC BY

Average CO2 level exceeds 410 ppm for first time

Since 1990, there has been a 40 per cent increase in total radiative forcing – the warming effect on our climate due to long-lived greenhouse gases.

Advice given on on the March for Science, Hamburg, Germany, April 2017. Photo: Flickr.com / Frerk Meyer CC BY-SA

1.5°C target still within reach

Scenarios show that the 1.5°C target can be reached without BECCS, through a massive expansion of renewable energy, improved energy efficency and lifestyle changes.

New low-emission zones in Sweden

On 4 April, the Swedish government announced that from 1 January 2020 municipalities will be able to introduce three different kinds of low-emission zones.

“Children’s right to breathe clean air takes priority over the right to drive all kinds of cars on every single street”, said Swedish Minister for the Environment Karolina Skog. Photo: Flickr.com / Sigfrid Lundberg CC BY-SA

Small leaks are difficult to detect, but matter over centuries. Photo: Flickr.com / Martin Fisch CC BY-SA

Myths about carbon storage – the Sleipner case

The risk of leaks that are difficult to detect and the thorough investigations required to find suitable sites are factors that limit the potential to scale up ongoing CO₂ storage projects.

The cement industry wants to use CCS, though there are several other options for them to cut CO2 emissions. Photo: Flickr.com / Screenpunk CC BY-NC

Norweigan CCS hype moves from power to industrial processes

The government is unlikely to foot the bill. There are faster, cheaper ways to cut such emissions.

A total of 28 German cities are facing legal action because of harmful levels of air pollution. Photo: © Shutterstock – LUNA4

11 more court cases over Germany’s dirty air

Following the victory in Germany’s highest court in February, environmental organisations Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) and ClientEarth are now taking legal action against ...

Smog over Ulaanbaatar. Photo: Flickr.com/Didemtali cc BY-NC

Mongolian air pollution causing health crisis

Smog in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar is causing a public health crisis, especially among children, according to a new study by the United Nations Children’s Fund ...

Around 7 million people die every year from exposure to fine particles. Photo: Flickr.com / Ian Sane CC BY-NC-ND

WHO: 9 out of 10 people breathing polluted air

Air pollution levels remain dangerously high in many parts of the world. Nine out of ten people globally are breathing polluted air, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports ...

Algae-based biofuels are mixed with conventional fossil fuels. Photo: © Shutterstock – KYTan

Renewable alternative to jet fuel in the US

The International Air Transport Association predicts that 7.2 billion passengers will fly in 2035, nearly doubling the 3.8 billion in 2016. Instead of petroleum ...

Increased emissions from German farms

German greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture reached a low in 2007, at 62 million tonnes CO2e, and have since then increased to 65.5 million tonnes, according to a report ...

Ammonia levels has increased by 9 per cent since 2010. Photo: Flickr.com / Stephen 10 on 12 CC BY-NC-ND

Concern over ammmonia in Northern Ireland

Ammonia has received some newly awakened attention in Northern Ireland, after a report “Making Ammonia Visible” was published in December by a working group commissioned ...

High-ranking public officals frequently move to jobs in the private energy sector and vice versa, without any cooling-off periods. Photo: ©Shutterstock – blurAZ

Revolving doors threat to climate policy

On 2 May the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament launched a report that examines the relationships between governments and the fossil fuel industry.

Ignorance? Is a bliss they say. Our statistics show that not revealing our plans of not doing anything about air pollution will prevent as many heart attacks as actually doing something about air pollution. Do you follow? Photo: ©Shutterstock – Sergio Delle Vedove

Secrecy over plans to tackle dirty air

Proposals from a handful of national governments to stave off legal action over breaches of air pollution limits are inadequate, while four out of nine countries facing referral ...

New Brittish record of 13.9 GW set in March this year. Photo: Flickr.com / Harry McGregor CC BY-NC

Wind power in the UK set a new record

On 17 March this year wind power generated 14 gigawatts for the first time – nearly 37 per cent of the country’s electricity. The National Grid control room confirmed that 13.9 gigawatts ...

We don’t just need electric cars, we need fewer cars says Greenpeace

Ever since the first production car rolled off the assembly line more than 100 years ago, our love affair with automobiles has grown and grown.

Truck on the test track outside Stockholm. Photo: eroadarlanda

Electrified roads for charging vehicles

The world’s first electrified road that recharges the batteries of cars and trucks while they drive along it has been opened in Sweden.

Eight per cent of diabetes mellitus can be atributed to NO2 pollution. Photo: Flickr.com / Alden Chadwick CC BY

Serious health impacts from NO2

A study by the German Environment Agency (UBA) estimates that roughly 6,000 premature deaths in 2014 were due to cardiovascular diseases linked to background concentrations of NO₂ in both rural and urban areas.

Stena Line considers using battery power in its fleet

Stena Line has signed a contract with Callenberg Technology Group for batteries with a capacity of 1 MWh to be installed on Stena Jutlandica, which operates between Gothenburg and Frederikshavn.

CO2 emission from shipping could be cut by more than 80 per cent by 2035, according to new OECD report. Photo: Flickr.com / Yoda NavaRrete CC BY

Decarbonisation of maritime shipping possible by 2035

A new report published by the OECD says that maximum deployment of currently known technologies could make it possible to achieve almost complete decarbonisation of maritime shipping by 2035. The report includes the following assessment:

In brief

Wind and solar cheaper than coal

The economics of generating electricity from fossil fuels are deteriorating rapidly as renewable energy technology plunges in costs according to a new Bloomberg New Energy Finance report. In most places, wind and solar will work out cheaper than coal by 2023. One new factor is that lithium-ion batteries have enjoyed a 79 per cent drop in costs since 2010, making the idea of storing energy a possibility the coming years. The price per megawatt-hour for generating from wind farms built onshore fell 18 per cent in the first half of 2018 to $55, while photovoltaics dropped 18 per cent to $70. Calculations for energy costs in China compare generating costs for combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGT), coal, wind farms and photovoltaics, suggesting that coal will fall behind the main forms of renewables early in the next decade. The cheapest solar and wind costs can now be found in China and India, which are also among the worst polluters. Bloomberg concludes that the tumbling costs will continue until at least until 2040 for both renewable energy sources worldwide, and they will become cheaper than coal and gas within five years, the report showed.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-28/fossil-fuels-squeezed...

EU subsidises most-polluting farms

Over half of Europe’s most-polluting livestock farms receive CAP payments, as revealed in a new study from Greenpeace.

They investigated all farms in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands listed in the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR). Agricultural installations are required to submit data to the E-PRTR if they emit more than 10,000 kg of ammonia per year, and to the Industrial Emission Directive register if they have space for over 40,000 poultry, 2,000 pigs or 750 sows.

Of the 2,374 livestock farms from these countries qualifying for the register, 1,209 received CAP payments totalling at least €104 million per year.

The report “Investigation: How the CAP promotes pollution”: http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/en/Publications/2018/investigation-CAP...

Nitrogen still pollutes European waters

Nitrogen overload continues to be a problem in European water bodies and aquifers, according to a new report from the EU commission with the aim of evaluating the implementation of the Nitrates directive. It is stated that “groundwater quality has only slightly improved” since 2008 and several countries are still recording excessive levels. In 2012-2015 13.2 per cent of the monitoring stations exceeded levels of 50mg/l, compared to 14.4 per cent in the previous reporting period.

The main source of nitrogen emissions is agriculture. Between the reporting periods 2008-2011 and 2012-2015 the average nitrogen discharge decreased by only 3 per cent. In the period 2012-2014, all member states, except Romania, had a surplus of nitrogen. The highest nitrogen surpluses (> 50 kg/ha) were found in Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Source: ENDS Daily 4 May 2018
The report: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-nitrates/pdf/nitrates_direct...

Consultation on 7th EAP

The European Commission announced in early May an open public consultation as part of its evaluation of the EU’s 7th Environment Action Programme (EAP). The programme will be assessed regarding its effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and added value. All citizens and organisations are welcome to contribute to this consultation, and the consultation period is from 3 May to 26 July 2018.

More information: https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/public-consultation-evaluation-7...

Consultation on Ambient Air Quality Directives

A public consultation announced in early May aims to collect views from stakeholders on the level of awareness of air quality challenges in general and the provisions of the Ambient Air Quality Directives in particular; how these directives have contributed to improved air quality in Europe; whether their provisions continue to be relevant, effective, efficient and coherent with other EU and national policies; and what value they add to the EU. All individuals and organisations are welcome to contribute to this consultation, and the consultation period started on 8 May and will end on 31 July 2018.

More information: https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/public-consultation-support-fitn...

Subsidy-free offshore wind farm

The Netherlands has mapped a 7 GW expansion of its offshore wind sector. Total sector capacity will rise from the currently planned 4.5 GW by 2023 to 11.5 GW. Transmission company TenneT is planning a hub, potentially on an artificial island, to connect the far offshore cluster of projects. The latter could also serve as a step towards a so-called Wind Connector grid link with the UK. Vattenfall won the rights to build the country’s first subsidy-free offshore wind farm, the 750 MW Hollandse Kust Zuid 1 & 2, earlier this year. Subsequent rounds are expected to move forwards on a concession basis via auctions.

http://renews.biz/110618/dutch-map-7gw-offshore-increase/

World’s biggest insurer moves away from coal

Allianz, the world’s biggest insurance company by assets, announced on 3 May 2018 that it will no longer provide stand-alone insurance coverage for coal power plants or coal mines. The German insurer also announced that it will ban all companies planning to build more than 500 MW of new coal capacity from its investment portfolio. This bold step reinforces the shift of the insurance industry away from coal and increases the pressure on industry laggards to adopt coal exit policies as well.

https://unfriendcoal.com/2018/05/03/allianz-moves-away-from-coal/

IMO agrees global high-sulphur fuel ban

A ban on carrying high-sulphur fuel on board vessels was approved by the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee in April. This means that ships will be barred from carrying fuel with a sulphur content exceeding 0.5 per cent unless they have an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) installed, and is seen an important step in the right direction toward efficient enforcement of both the global fuel sulphur cap that takes effect in 2020 and the EU’s sulphur directive. The proposal must now be formally adopted at the next MEPC meeting in October.

Source: ShippingWatch, 16 April 2018