Carbon neutral fuels8/31/2023 ![]() It’s clear why some in the automotive industry want to keep the internal combustion engine alive. Meanwhile, the use of biomass creates incentives to harvest wood and divert agricultural land to grow energy crops, regardless of the consequences for land as a carbon sink or for biodiversity. The capacity to make green hydrogen is severely limited, and any expansion should be used to power sectors such as heavy industry, for which viable decarbonization alternatives are not yet available. Moreover, claims of climate neutrality - based on the idea that the CO 2 emitted by their combustion was absorbed relatively recently from the biosphere, or that CO 2 produced during their manufacture was prevented from entering the atmosphere - are questionable. ![]() The technologies used to make these fuels are inefficient, expensive and untested at scale. These fuels rely either on inputs such as ‘green’ hydrogen, which is made by splitting water using renewable electricity, or on feedstocks such as biomass. The problem lies in the phrase ‘carbon-neutral fuels’. How the hydrogen revolution can help save the planet - and how it can’t These are climate-damaging moves from a region that has so far led the world in policies for decarbonizing transport. New cars with internal combustion engines can continue to be sold after 2035, provided the engines use carbon-neutral fuels instead of diesel, petrol or compressed and liquefied gases. This has been resolved, but only through a concession to Germany’s powerful automotive industry. However, the past few weeks have seen the European Commission embroiled in a row with Germany, Italy and some other EU members over implementation of the 2035 deadline. In the European Union, at least, it seemed that the two sides were strapped in, ready to reach that destination by 2035. This is why policymakers have been nudging car makers to accelerate efforts to bring an end to the manufacture of vehicles fitted with an internal combustion engine. ![]() Some three-quarters of transport emissions came from just one source - the exhausts of road vehicles.Ĭonverting road transport to run on green energy would be a huge step towards achieving net zero emissions by mid-century, a change needed if we are to limit global warming to ‘safe’ levels. Worldwide, the planes, trains and automobiles we use to get around pumped around 7.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2021, one-fifth of all anthropogenic emissions. The future of mobility needs to be electric.
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