With extreme heat, floods and fires, the highest inflation in decades, unprecedented energy price-hikes, a looming energy shortfall and a war on European soil, the world feels like it’s at a crossroads. We certainly need all hands on deck to confront the multiple crises we face together. In the midst of these chaotic times, there is one area in our society where all the threads come together: our transport system. It is one of the roots of our oil dependence, causing many of the problems we face.
Let’s take a closer look at how our mobility system connects to these crises and how we and our governments must use it to confront them.
Climate and nature crises
With record heat waves, massive droughts, floods and raging fires, this summer the damaging consequences and costs of the climate crisis have been more visible than ever before.
Our oil-guzzling transport system is a major driver of the climate crisis – accounting for almost 30 per cent of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions and 23 per cent of global emissions – with high costs for our health and well-being from air pollution and noise to our environment.
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The direct exploitation of our natural resources, including the extraction of oil, is one of the biggest threats to our natural world. Transport is the main reason for oil extraction and production worldwide, with around 60 per cent of oil used for transport globally, and almost 70 per cent in the EU. The production of agro-fuels for cars, or the construction of new infrastructure for polluting transport like airports and highways further threatens wildlife habitats and forests.
Despite these grim impacts on our climate and nature, governments give transport and fossil fuel industries financial and policy privileges to help them make huge profits at the expense of people. Meanwhile, these companies are betting mainly on false solutions like carbon offsetting or ramping up the production of agro-fuels which are largely fuelling deforestation, biodiversity loss, environmental destruction and human rights abuses.
Source: Greenpeace
