Lowering carbon emissions, improving air quality and moving away from fossil fuels is a global concern. The impacts of not accomplishing enough, rapidly enough, are well advertised and a shared concern no matter where we live. In the West some like to take the moral high ground that we are ‘leading the change’ and in many ways that is true. Through writing for this blog I’ve noticed different areas of environmental change take greater emphasis depending on the region of the world. Some general observations include the irony that wet and rainy Europe is leaping toward solar power at a speed of knots, while the United States lags far behind. Sustainable farming methods grow fairly rapidly in North America but remain at the concept levels elsewhere. Perhaps most surprisingly China seems to be chasing the move to electric vehicles with more vigour than North America or Europe. Why would that be?

Part of the answer lies in the evolution of the Chinese economy, especially when compared with our more established methods. At the centre of this is the fact that a generation ago few people in China owned a personal vehicle and in comparative terms that is still the case. While vehicles per 1,000 people in Europe and North America ranges from around 320 (Greece) to a high of about 760 (USA) in China however that ratio is about 130 per 1,000 people. However due to China’s population that is still a huge number of vehicles – some 168 million, compared with over 250 million in the USA. The reality is that within the next decade China will not only surpass the US for total vehicles on the road but the ratio of ownership will probably grow to the low end of European rates (near 300 per 1,000 people). As a side note this also projects China would become the largest customer for gasoline in the next decade. Or will it?

Traffic in Shanghai

There does exist a variable to that equation and that is the burgeoning efforts of the Chinese government to develop the market for electric vehicles. Yes they are in a different place as far as the auto market goes but that doesn’t detract from the potential of what they are looking to achieve. Moreover if China can speed this transition why can’t Europe and North America follow? Naturally enough China faces other major challenges with the incredible rate of industrialization that continues and a heavily taxed environmental system in terms of food production versus population. Indeed even with strict controls China’s population continued to grow by over 60 million in the last 8 years from 1.26 billion to 1.32 billion. However let’s look at the auto industry.

Central authorities in Beijing will soon be unrolling the first phase of what may become a massive commitment to greener transport.  The initial program will be unveiled in five major cities and provides significant financial incentives to purchase an electric car. While in North America rebates are available the amount saved is far less and the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging remains a plan rather than a reality. actually be branched on a massive scale.

The unofficial reports cite that the eco-incentives or rebates will be in the region of $8,000-$8,500 US, certainly an amount that will hugely influence purchasing patterns. People will argue this is a state controlled leverage of the auto industry, but considering the US federal government recently bailed out the car makers and hold them to standards for increased fuel efficiency it would be a double standard. More to the point we keep moving the burden of making positive environmental changes to corporations but corporations don’t answer to the electorate – governments do and in environmental terms perhaps governments need to take the lead? Something has to change either way.
These moves are planned to be rolled out nationally and in a nation undergoing huge changes in urbanization and prosperity the improvement and differences would potentially be vast. Whether these plans will be mirrored elsewhere remains to be seen, I think ultimately they will have to be – and should be.