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Report shows electric vehicles central to closing global emissions gap

Source: BusinessNZ

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Newly released research by the World Energy Council (WEC) shows that electric vehicles (EVs) will need to increase their combined market share to 16% by 2020 to achieve the aggressive fuel economy standards set by policy makers around the world.

The World Energy Perspective 2016: ‘E-mobility: closing the emissions gap’, examines the role of EVs in meeting increasingly stringent fuel economy standards, being set to address environmental preservation and climate change mitigation goals. This growing role for EVs is referred to as the "EV gap". It says that EVs should be considered central to any policy and technology portfolio designed to lower transport emissions.

New Zealand’s EV initiative is cited as a case study in the report, which highlights key findings representing a new frontier and signicant opportunity for the energy sector. The report describes how New Zealand’s renewable electricity advantage belies a problem: rapidly growing transport emissions. Our transport sector currently causes around 16% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Hon. David Caygill, Chair of the BusinessNZ Energy Council, says, "We can learn a lot from the WEC’s report findings. New Zealand is a slow starter, with only 1,015 EVs out of 3.1 million registered light vehicles as at January 2016. While we are working with our renewable advantage, we can definitely do more.

"Balanced energy policy outcomes that contribute to improvements across the three dimensions of energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability must be the focus of energy system improvements.

"We will work with the government to achieve continuous progress, taking into account findings from studies such as the WEC E-mobility 2016 report, as well as our two recent BEC2050 energy scenarios - ‘Kayak’ and ‘Waka’, both of which suggested EV uptake falling a long way short of 16% of vehicles. In the predominantly market-led future, ‘Kayak’, there were only 2,500 EVs in 2020; whereas the government-led alternative, ‘Waka’, suggested 41,050 EVs in the same year. The government’s 2020 target currently falls between the Kayak and Waka scenarios, but looks to achieve outcomes more akin to Waka. Either way, there is much work to do."

ENDS

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