The projections that had been circulating during the past few months turned out to be correct. Now, it is official: the global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions peaked in 2014 and went down in 2015. And this could be a momentous change.
Don’t expect the emission peak, alone, to save us from the impending climate disaster, but, if CO2 emissions will start an irreversible decline, then we need to rethink several assumptions that we have been making on how to deal with climate change. In particular, depletion is normally assumed to be a minor factor in determining the trajectory of the world’s economy during the coming decades, but that may not be the case. Depletion is not a good thing in itself, but it might help us (perhaps) to stay within the “safe” limits and avoid a climate disaster.
CO2 emissions are mainly the result of the combustion of fossil fuels and of activities made possible by the combustion of fossil fuels. And, since we expect the production of fossil fuels to peak and decline as the result of depletion, it shouldn’t be a surprise that CO2 emissions should peak too. But it is surprising that we may be already seeing the peak. For instance, Laherrere had assumed the peak for all fossils to occur not before around 2025. And many people would have seen these projections as ridiculously catastrophistic. Most of the published scenarios for the future saw CO2 emissions increasing for at least a few decades in the future unless draconian economic or legislative measures to limit them were taken.
So, what we are seeing may be simply a fluctuation; not necessarily “the peak”. But, it might also be the big one: the point of no-return. From now on, we may find ourselves rolling down on the other side of the Hubbert curve. It would be the true vindication of the “base case” scenario of “The Limits to Growth” that had seen the combination of gradual depletion and pollution to cause the start of the terminal decline of the fossil based industrial system at some moment during the 2nd-3rd decade of the 21st century.
Australian researchers say a global tracker monitoring energy use per person points to 2C warming by 2030
Severe Flooding, Against a Background of Wind Turbines: November 2012, Tyringham, Bucks. (Image: T. Larkum)
The world is on track to reach dangerous levels of global warming much sooner than expected, according to new Australian research that highlights the alarming implications of rising energy demand.
University of Queensland and Griffith University researchers have developed a “global energy tracker” which predicts average world temperatures could climb 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2020.
That forecast, based on new modelling using long-term average projections on economic growth, population growth and energy use per person, points to a 2C rise by 2030.
The UN conference on climate change in Paris last year agreed to a 1.5C rise as the preferred limit to protect vulnerable island states, and a 2C rise as the absolute limit.
The new modelling is the brainchild of Ben Hankamer from UQ’s institute for molecular bioscience and Liam Wagner from Griffith University’s department of accounting, finance and economics, whose work was published in the journal Plos One on Thursday.
It is the first model to include energy use per person – which has more than doubled since 1950 – alongside economic and population growth as a way of predicting carbon emissions and corresponding temperature increases.
The researchers said the earlier than expected advance of global warming revealed by their modelling added a newfound urgency to the switch from fossil fuels to renewables.
Hankamer said:
“The more the economy grows, the more energy you use … the conclusion really is that economists and environmentalists are on the same side and have both come to the same conclusion: we’ve got to act now and we don’t have much time.”
Renault ZOE customers continue to receive a free fast-charging wallbox
Wallbox adds to Renault ZOE’s ease of ownership
Offer is unique in the UK electric vehicle market place
Represents a customer saving of nearly £500
Renault ZOE attracts maximum £4,500 support in new PiCG categories
A Renault ZOE on charge (Image: Fraunhofer ISE)Following the announcement of the changes to the Government Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) and Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme, Renault is to continue its unique customer offer of supplying a free fully-installed fast-charging wallbox to new ZOE customers1.
Available to retail customers, the 7kW charging wallbox is supplied and installed by Renault’s partner, Chargemaster, at the customer’s domestic address as part of the price of the Renault ZOE. Chargemaster is the UK’s most successful supplier and operator of charging equipment, having shipped more than 45,000 charging points in the last five years across the UK and nine European countries from its dedicated UK-based manufacturing facilities. This offer is unique in the UK electric vehicle market place and tops-up the Government grant towards a domestic charger, saving the customer nearly £500.
As of 1st March 2016, the Office Low Emission Vehicles has revised the PiCG support for the three pre-existing categories2 and now gives the greatest financial incentive to vehicles that emit 0g/km CO2 and have a zero emission range of 70 miles or over. ZOE is in category 1 as it exceeds these criteria and therefore attracts the maximum £4,500 support level. Vehicles in categories 2 and 3 now receive £2,500 – under the previous PiCG rules all categories received the same £5,000 amount.
The Chargemaster 7kW Homecharge unit allows ZOE owners to charge their vehicle from flat to full in 3-4 hours at their home. Using the My ZE Inter@ctive timer app customers are able to schedule the time that ZOE is charged and benefit from significantly lower off-peak electricity prices.
Ben Fletcher, Electric Vehicle Product Manager, Groupe Renault UK, commented:
“The Electric Vehicle market is growing at an unprecedented rate, and a big part of that is customers discovering just how cost-effective and easy to live with these cars are. By continuing to provide a home-charging unit installed at the customer’s address, we’re able to ensure that these points are even stronger for the ZOE than the competition, with customers able to fully charge in just 3-4 hours at home as standard.”
ZOE is fitted with a patented Chameleon™ charger that, unlike other EVs, always allows ZOE to make the best use of whatever charging supply is available in order to speed up charging times. ZOE Dynamique Nav Rapid Charge can charge at up to 43kW, meaning that 0 to 80 per cent full can be achieved in as little as 30 minutes, depending on version. ZOE customers benefit from six months’ free membership to the POLAR Plus network, the UK’s largest public network offering access to over 4,000 charging points that span from 3kW-22kW. The ZOE is also able to make full use of nearly 600 rapid AC chargers installed at key nationwide locations, such as motorway service stations.
The ZOE is an all-electric, five-door supermini available in three trim levels that comes with a high level of standard specification, including items such as climate control and sat-nav. ZOE also has a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating and was recently awarded the title of What Car? ‘Best Electric Car for less than £20,000’ for the third consecutive year, and ‘Best Electric Vehicle’ in the Auto Express Driver Power 2015 survey.
The model’s official NEDC range is up to 149 miles – Renault estimates that in real-world driving conditions that this equates to around 106 miles in summer and 71 miles in winter.
ZOE is available to purchase in two ways. Firstly, under a battery hire scheme, where ZOE pricing starts at £13,945 after the Government Plug-in Car Grant with battery leasing from £45 per month. Benefits include a lifetime performance guarantee for the battery and 24/7 roadside assistance – even if you run out of charge.
You can also buy your ZOE outright. ZOE i ‘full purchase’ models start from £18,945 after the Government Plug-in Car Grant, giving the buyer full ownership of the car and battery and no monthly battery lease payment.
Selected ZOE models are also currently available with a number of Renault Selections PCP, hire purchase and cash purchase offers.
Renault offers a range of electric vehicles to suit private and commercial requirements. In addition to the ZOE hatchback, the Renault EV range comprises of the innovative, two-seater Twizy city car, Twizy Cargo that offers a load area of 180 litres and a useful 75 kg payload, and the Kangoo Z.E and Kangoo Maxi Z.E vans that combine the same generous load capacity and options as the equivalent diesel versions with ultra-low running costs.
In 2015, Renault was the European market leader for electric cars, with ZOE, and with electric vans, with Kangoo Van Z.E., and sold a total of 23,086 units EVs (including Twizy).
In the UK, 2015 ZOE sales more than doubled (up by 102 per cent) to 2,053 vehicles, significantly outpacing the UK electric vehicle market, which was up 48 per cent on 2014. ZOE is the second best-selling electric car in the UK representing one in five EVs sold.
Audi hybrid models are seen as a stop-gap between full-petrol or -diesel engines and the introduction of full-electric Audis in the future, says Audi boss Rupert Stadler
Audi Q7 e-tron Quattro (Image: Audi)
Hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology will only be a “bridging technology” for around ten years, according to Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, until full electric driving becomes more mainstream.
“Hybrid and plug-in hybrids are a transitional and bridge technology for about the next ten years,”
said Stadler, who said he expected electrified cars, including hybrids, to account for 20-25% of all sales by 2025.
“In parallel we will offer various battery-electric models in different volume series models until 2025. But, of course, only the customers can decide the sales mix between electrified and conventionally-engined vehicles.”
Audi has already committed to produce its first fully electric SUV, the Audi Q6 e-tron, with a range of 500km (310 miles) from 2018. It will be built at a new factory in Belgium, alongside Audi’s battery plant that will produce batteries developed with its partners, LG and Samsung.
Welcome to REMICHANICS! dedicated to vintage and contemporary cars, mostly Renault and Citroën. In this second video, you can watch how to mount snow chains and visit the beautiful remote village of Obermutten, Switzerland, with zero emissions in an all-electric Renault Zoe R240. Enjoy!
Renault didn’t waste time getting busy in 2016, as the French company increased electric car sales in January by 104% over a year ago to 1,886.
Renault BEVs sales – January 2016 (Image: InsideEVs)
If we add in the, not so successful, Twizy, total sales reach 1,977 (up 88%).
Over the past three years, January has been one of the slowest months of EV sales for Renault, so looking ahead this could be a big year for the French automaker.
The top selling model in January was the ZOE notching 1,416 sales (up 105%). And because the ZOE was the most popular pure electric car in Europe in 2015, such growth has considerable impact on the overall market.
The Geneva Motor Show is ground zero for all things automotive for Europe, and a major launching pad for new offerings – plug-in or otherwise. So it was no surprise to see Nissan-Renault CEO (and Avtovaz Chairman) Carlos Ghosn making an appearance, and doing a little ‘show and tell’ with his company’s most recent hotness.
The IDS Concept (a 60 kWh, 200+ mile all-electric car that we feel is a thinly disguised look at the next generation Nissan LEAF), is one such European debut that Mr. Ghosn attended this week.
And while on hand, Ghosn made some comments about the future of the plug-in technology – what it means to Nissan, the automotive segment, and the fact that VW’s recent emission scandal has accelerated the urgency to convert to a plug.
Basically, the CEO says that ‘Dieselgate’ demonstrated you can’t trust anyone, and that we need zero emissions to get serious about saving the planet as ‘zero means zero’:
“Without any doubt, because it has attracted the attention on the fact that even though the regulators are trying to do their best to say what is acceptable, and what is not acceptable, in term of emissions, there will always be conditions that the regulators cannot regulate. So if you really worry about emissions, the only solution is the electric car because here you have zero emission, you have nothing to measure.
On top of this, as you know, COP 21 has lead to the conclusion that we cannot afford to have more than 2 degrees of heating of the planet 20 or 30 years down the road, and this means more zero emission cars”
“Five years ago, it was said that one of the main reasons people weren’t buying electric cars was because of a lack places to charge them – and the main reason more places to charge weren’t being built was because not enough people were buying electric cars – classic chicken and egg stuff,” says Dale Vince, former new age traveller and outspoken founder of the world’s first green energy company, Ecotricity. “We decided to break that impasse.”
Vince received an OBE from the Queen for services to the environment in 2004. In 2011, Ecotricity created the Electric Highway, the first national network of fast chargers in Britain. Free, compatible with all electric vehicles on the market, and powered by the wind and the sun, it is now the most comprehensive charging network in Europe.
Vince says:
“We built Britain’s first electric supercar, the Nemesis, in 2010 – we wanted to show the true potential of electric cars and demonstrate how we can get around without fossil fuels. We had to shake the old image of the electric car first. The next step was to tackle the infrastructure problem, which led us to conceive of the Electric Highway.”
With Ecotricity pumps covering the entire motorway network in Britain, as well as strategic A-roads, ports and airports, electric cars are now reality in Britain – as owners travel the length and breadth of the country, literally from John O’Groats to Lands’ End.
Vince started by installing essentially three-pin plugs on the British motorway network. These would take eight hours to charge a car. Fast forward five years and there are now multiple charging networks across Britain, but the Electric Highway still leads the way, with nearly 300 Electricity pumps across the British motorway network that can charge in as little as 20 minutes.
Every charge uses Ecotricity’s 100% green energy, from the wind and sun – enabling electric cars to reach their true potential, zero emission free driving. And it’s been completely free to use since 2011, to encourage more people to make the switch.
“Our work fits in perfectly with the target the whole world agreed to in Paris last year,” adds Vince, “to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees or less. To achieve this, we simply must stop burning fossil fuels by 2050, and that requires nothing short of a revolution in the three biggest areas of impact – energy, transport and food. The revolution is already underway on British roads.”
Transport is currently one of the biggest contributors towards our personal carbon footprints, so the Electric Highway network offers a solution to one of the world’s greatest problems.