Just days after scientists named 2015 the hottest year on record, top environmental groups Greenpeace, Sierra Club and 350.org have released a new report, Keep It In the Ground, identifying the top climate threats facing the planet. The report examines the fossil fuel reserves around the world that, if developed, would push the globe past 1.5C and then 2C of warming, the threshold beyond which the effects of climate change would make the Earth unlivable.
Fresh off a series of victories in 2015, these groups and others are taking on many of the challenges identified in the Keep It In the Ground report as part of a global push to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and accelerate a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy.
“Climate change is already bringing flood waters and wildfires right to our doorsteps," May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, said. “At this point, continuing to burn fossil fuels is truly lethal. The effort by fossil fuel companies to dig up and burn coal, oil and gas despite the consequences is the biggest threat our planet faces. All around the world people are now mobilizing to keep fossil fuels in the ground."
Keep It in The Ground lays out the carbon risk of fossil fuel deposits in Africa, the Arctic, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the U.S., measuring each against a global carbon budget meant to prevent catastrophic climate change. The report also assesses the changing public policies surrounding each fuel source, fossil fuel industry efforts to develop them and citizens' ongoing efforts to keep them in the ground.
“With the historic climate accord set in Paris last year, nearly 200 nations from around the world set an expiration date for fossil fuels," Lena Moffitt, director of Sierra Club's Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, said. “Now we must rise to the occasion by transitioning to 100 percent clean and renewable energy sources and leave dirty fuels where they belong—in the ground."
According to the report, unless Canada's government implements strong environmental protections, the country's tar sands projects could add an expected 420 million metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere each year by 2020—more than the entire annual emissions of Saudi Arabia. Tar sands are the fastest growing source of emissions in Canada and the Trudeau government has yet to present a plan to reconcile new tar sands mines and pipelines with international commitments on greenhouse gas reductions. Beyond spewing an additional 700 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, expanded mining activity in Australia's Queensland region would devastate the Great Barrier Reef, which is already under severe stress from rising temperatures.
"The global climate movement is stronger than ever and we've seen important progress in the effort to keep fossil fuels in the ground, from Arctic oil to Powder River Basin coal," Kelly Mitchell, Greenpeace U.S. climate director, said. “We can't undo the damage that fossil fuel companies have caused already, but we can prevent further harm and build a more just world in the process. Our lives depend on it."
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"Now that we are spending more time at home, we are noticing the large number of delivery vans and lorries driving through cities," said Netherlands environment minister Stientje van Veldhoven, announcing plans to ban all but zero-emission deliveries in 14 cities.
"The agreements we are setting down will ensure that it will be a matter of course that within a few years, supermarket shelves will be stocked, waste will be collected, and packages will arrive on time, yet without any exhaust fumes and CO2 emissions," she added.
She expects 30 cities to announce zero emission urban logistics by this summer. City councils must give four years' notice before imposing bans as part of government plans for emission-free road traffic by 2050. The city bans aim to save 1 megaton of CO2 each year by 2030.
Help to Change
To encourage transport organizations to go carbon-free, the government is offering grants of more than US$5,900 to help businesses buy or lease electric vehicles. There will be additional measures to help small businesses make the change.
The Netherlands claims it is the first country in the world to give its cities the freedom to implement zero-emission zones. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht already have "milieuzones" where some types of vehicles are banned.
Tilburg, one of the first wave of cities imposing the Dutch ban, will not allow fossil-fuelled vehicles on streets within its outer ring road and plans to roll out a network of city-wide electric vehicle charging stations before the ban comes into effect in 2025.
"Such initiatives are imperative to improve air quality. The transport of the future must be emission-free, sustainable, and clean," said Tilburg city alderman Oscar Dusschooten.
Europe Takes Action
Research by Renault shows that many other European cities are heading in the same direction as the Netherlands, starting with Low Emission Zones of which Germany's "Umweltzone" were pioneers. More than 100 communes in Italy have introduced "Zonas a traffico limitato."
Madrid's "zona de baja emisión" bans diesel vehicles built before 2006 and petrol vehicles from before 2000 from central areas of the city. Barcelona has similar restrictions and the law will require all towns of more than 50,000 inhabitants to follow suit.
Perhaps the most stringent restrictions apply in London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which charges trucks and large vehicles up to US$137 a day to enter the central area if they do not comply with Euro 6 emissions standards. From October, the ULEZ is being expanded.
Cities are responsible for around 75% of CO2 emissions from global final energy use, according to the green thinktank REN21 - and much of these come from transport. Globally, transport accounts for 24% of world CO2 emissions.
The Rise of Online Shopping
Part of the reason for traffic in urban areas is the increase in delivery vehicles, as online shopping continues to grow. Retailer ecommerce sales are expected to pass $5billion in 2022, according to eMarketer.
The World Economic Forum's report The Future of the Last-Mile Ecosystem, published in January 2020, estimates that e-commerce will increase the number of delivery vehicles on the roads of the world's 100 largest cities by 36% by 2030.
If all those vehicles burn fossil fuels, the report says emissions will increase by 32%. But switching to all-electric delivery vehicles would cut emissions by 30% from current levels as well as reducing costs by 25%, the report says.
Other solutions explored in the report include introducing goods trams to handle deliveries alongside their passenger-carrying counterparts and increased use of parcel lockers to reduce the number of doorstep deliveries.
Reposted with permission from the World Economic Forum.