Outline
I. Introduction
To keep global average temperature below C, transportation sector should be decarbonised. Although transition to electric vehicles would decrease co2 in the atmosphere, due to lack of incentives, the market adopts the EVs at slow pace. With right set of incentives, the government could induce the market to shift away from internal combusted engine vehicles.
a) Body paragraph #1-The adoption of EVs benefits to environment, human health and economy.
b) Body paragraph #2-The government should intervene to accelerate the adoption process but any unrealistic policy should be avoided.
c) Body paragraph #3- Financial incentives, accompanied by right set of policies would encourage the consumers to shift away from ICE vehicles
II. Conclusion
To achieve ambiguous goal under Paris Agreement, the government should promote to adopt the EVs by offering financial incentives to the consumers and setting right set of policies to convince a shift away from ICE vehicles.
Transition to Electric Vehicles
The emission into the atmosphere makes the world warmer than it should be. This steady heating of the world’s temperature brings about climate change, which in turn degrades the quality of life and affects sustainable economic growth of the countries. There is a global scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, which resulted in Paris Agreement, the purpose of which is to keep global average temperature increase below C relative to pre-industrial level. The one of the solution to reach this ambiguous goal is decarbonisation of global energy system including shifting away from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric ones. Regardless of electric vehicles (EVs) benefits, there is slow transition away from ICE towards EV because it requires government intervention. The government should offer financial incentives to consumers and automobile manufacturers along with other set of policies to speed up the EVs growth.
The EVs that produce zero emission help to mitigate greenhouse emissions from transportation sector which is one of the primary sources of Less carbon emissions of road transportation in urban areas improves air quality and reduces health risks associated with air pollution. Moreover, the EVs provide economic benefits by lowering fuel costs and reducing amount of imported oil.
Despite the apparent benefits of EVs, adoption process lags behind way over them. Unless the government steps up, due to lack of incentives the market will fail to clean up the transportation sector by the time climate goals should be achieved. However, any unrealistic policy to accelerate the transition such as overnight ban on production and sale of ICE vehicles should be avoided since such kind of policy would devastate the market and failure of policy implementation would be inevitable. Time is the most crucial part of the adoption process.
To make the transition from ICE to EV happen effectively, first of all, financial incentives to shift away from ICE vehicles should be established. Carbon pricing would increase the price of gasoline, making the EVs more attractive to commuters and a rise in price of ICE vehicles would result in decline of sales. Shift in demand of automobile would induce the manufacturers to consider increasing the volumes of EVs production and sales. Also, tax credits lower the price of EVs, then encourage the consumers to purchase a zero-emission vehicle. Single policy is not likely to produce efficient results; therefore, this requires an implementation of many number of policies. Supporting to expand the charging stations would resolve one of key issues to adopt the EVs by removing limitation of infrastructure. Installing city-operated free public charging stations and free parking spots would facilitate the transition to the EVs. Raising awareness of these benefits to own an electric car besides the environmental and health advantages would persuade the consumers to choose EVs over ICE vehicles. Finally, ban on sale and production of ICE vehicles should be introduced at some time in the future. Earlier announcement of effective date for ban on ICE vehicles makes transition process easier for automobile manufacturers.
Transportation sector is one of the main source of greenhouse gas emissions and in order to mitigate negative climate change impacts, shifting to zero-emission vehicles is encouraged. Although EVs bring numerous benefits to environment, human health and economy, the deployment of the vehicles are slower than expected. Thus, government intervention is needed to accelerate the transition process. The financial incentives combined with other policies to promote the adoption of EVs would convince car owners to purchase a new electric vehicle, thereby less air pollution from transportation contributes to achieving an ambiguous target under the Paris Agreement.