How Companies Can Start Using Electric Fleets To Reduce Emissions
Author: Joseph Vellone
The Paris Agreement calls for the world to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 to keep global warming at or below 1.5°C and avert the worst impacts of climate change.
Much of the focus of the world’s—and America’s—emissions reduction efforts are understandably focused on transportation, the second-largest contributor to climate change globally, and here in the U.S., the number-one source of GHG emissions. Indeed, the Biden Administration has set a target of 50% of new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, and earlier this month the EPA proposed new standards that would force 67% of new light-duty vehicles and 50% of medium and heavy-duty fleet vehicles to be electric by 2032.
The Covid-19 pandemic gave us a glimpse of what the world could look like with fewer cars on the road and cleaner air to breathe as people stopped commuting and many businesses were forced to close. In areas with tight lockdowns, road transportation levels declined as much as 50% to 75%, leading to increases in air qualities across cities and entire regions; for example, Southeast Asia enjoyed a 40% reduction in harmful airborne particles from traffic during 2020.