2023-08-19 12:55:39
In France, the transport sector is the one that contributes the most to climate change, it accounts for 31% of our emissions. And it is the individual car that weighs the heaviest, since it represents 16% of emissions in France. The European Union has made a commitment to end the sale of thermal vehicles in 2035, favoring electric vehicles. But this switch from one technology to another will not be enough to reduce our emissions, point out many experts. How to reduce the space of the car? Are there concrete public policy solutions that have achieved this? To what other type of vehicles can we turn to ensure our trips while contributing as little as possible to global warming?
The researcher specializing in the decarbonization of transport Aurélien Bigo provides answers in this episode of the podcast “Human heat”, broadcast on May 9, 2023 on the website of the Monde.
Why does the car weigh so much in our greenhouse gas emissions?
Because today the car is very dependent on oil and burning oil is a lot of CO₂ emissions. The car is absolutely dominant in mobility and this dependence, over longer distances, explains that these are large amounts of CO₂ emissions.
France has been built over the last fifty years around the use of the car, with places of residence far from jobs or schools, shops. The car becomes compulsory for many…
The landscaping was designed by the car and for the car. It has made it possible to have this urban sprawl, the dispersion of housing in particular. Once you have this spatial planning, you are dependent on the car, only the car allows you to cover relatively long distances, which walking or cycling can do more with difficulty. And this dispersion makes public transport unsuitable. When there is a high population density, for example in the biggest cities, it is quite effective to put public transport in place because there are significant travel flows. But when you disperse a lot, it becomes more difficult or even impossible in some places to have efficient public transport.
There is necessarily a difference between uses in cities and in rural areas, for example. What is the division between the uses of the car in France today?
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