So nothing's changed really in government policy. The only thing that's changed is that it's now more *controversial* I guess. There are more & louder voices pointing out that it won't work.
#ClimateTwitter we need to talk about percentages and denominators.
Depending on what you divide it by, any measure bringing about carbon emission reductions can be made to look ridiculously small, or huge.
Good to be aware of these things [THREAD]
For illustrative purposes, let's take this measure I've been tweeting about lately: introducing a generalised 130km/h motorway speed limit in Germany (where there isn't any) would cut annual emissions by 1.9MTCO2e.
Opponents of #tempolimit in Germany argue that the resulting emission savings (2MTCO2e) are too small to matter.
In fact, they would help deliver *almost half* of the transport emission reductions (-5MTCO2e) promised in the government own emission budget for *this year*
The interview is topped-off with dramatic, populist undertones: "the voters can decide: either freedom of mobility with us, or bans & constraints with the Greens"
...as well as inaccuracies: Scheuer claims that German motorways are "the safest roads in the world" (no less). That's not correct.
Another day, another instance of gaslighting in the German #Tempolimit debate.
Here is the leader of the pro-business FDP party claiming that motorway speed limits "do not necessarily reduce emissions", because... EVs 🤦♂️ zeit.de/2021/28/christ…
So let's go through this once again.
1. The German government's *own estimates* find a significant emission reduction from motorway speed limits
...which is why the International Energy Agency recommends the introduction of 100km/h motorway speed limits from now to 2030 - the decade where we expect EVs sales to boom
Likely next German Chancellor Laschet claims that introducing a generalised motorway speed limit (still not a thing in Germany!) would be "symbolic policy" as there is no proof that it would reduce emissions.
The estimated CO2 reduction impact of a motorway speed limit is actually comparable to that of a substantial CO2 tax or a ban on domestic flights (see link in the thread)
@lamb_wf Transport accounts for 14-15% of global GHG emissions according to the latest figures (2018). Most of it from road transport (11% of global emissions). Aviation is 1.6%.
Road transport is both one of the highest emitting subsectors AND one of the subsectors with the most rapid growth since 2010 (+2% per year)