[EN] The Master Plan or how to switch Europe to EVs by 2030 - Part I
There are many people who are telling you that is not possible for all of us to switch to electrical cars, that the grid will not be able to support the power consumption, that we cannot generate enough power for all the cars, that we will replace ICE with coal, but in my opinion this are just excuses to not do the right thing. So, lets see some solutions because there is an army of people that invent excuses every day.1. Stop ignoring the science and recognize the Climate Change problemStarting from European Commission and European Parliament, continuing with all decision makers at country level and ending with local community decision makers, all with a common voice should recognize the issue and start acting accordingly as soon as possible. First step in solving a problem is always to recognize the problem and for Climate Change we do not have yet a clear recognition or at least not with a common voice by all European decision levels. Many people with authority today have clear interests in not switching to clean energy and transportation and allowing them to publicly deny the issue will just make things hard and most of the actions that need to be taken, harder to implement. Considering that in a few decades human life on Earth will be seriously impacted by our inaction to Climate Change, this is not an issue open for debate. There is no “right to kill” or “right to break the law”, so being against actions to limit Climate Change should be as illegal as possible.2. Identify the best solutionsIn my opinion, there are a lot of solutions that can be implemented some with less cost than others, some more popular than others but what is important is to identify for each country and each city the right solutions to implement. What will work in a west cost city is possible to not work in a city located in the east part of European Union. Important is to have the right solutions to implement in the right place and to follow a clear European Master Plan.3. Build a plan with clear and reasonable timelinesIs very important to have a plan designed to limit Climate Change. This plan should be agreed at European level, we should have a plan for European Union and based on that, each country should add their own solution and actions to be taken, and in the end each city should have his own plan to combat Climate Change threat. The European plan should contain reasonable timelines but countries can set even more ambition deadlines if they consider, that this is reasonable for their situation.Some of the most important topics and timelines that need to be included in European plan against Climate Change are:a) No fossil fuel should be sold in European Union – Resonable timeline 2030b) No fossil fuel powered engine should be operated on public or private roads – Resonable timeline 2030c) All private and public companies that activate in European Union should consume at least 50% by 2022, 75% by 2025 and 100% by 2027 of the electricity generated from renewable sourcesd) No fossil fuel powered vehicle can be bought or imported in European Union (ICE cars and all the vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine including utility vehicles, generators, ships, etc.) – Resonable timeline 2025e) No fossil fuel powered vechicle should be produced in European Union – Resonable timeline 2025f) No investment public or private should be permited in companies that generate more than half of their income from fossil fuel related activities – Resonable timeline 2023g) „Fossil free zones” should be set in every city, starting with at least 10% of cities surface – Resonable timeline 2021 and extended by 10% each yearh) Public transportation fleet should become greener starting with 10% from 2021 and incresing by 10% each year. No new ICE powered public transportation vehicle should be bought starting from 2021. This should apply also to vehicles owned by state or local authorities like: police cars, emergency response cars, local utility cars, etc.i) All public transportation licenses should be conditioned by owning a fleet of electricaly powered buses. This fleet should be at least 10% by 2021 and extended by 10% each year.j) No new dirty electricity generation should be allowed in European Union. No new coal, nuclear plants, gas powered or cogeneration units should be installed and for the existing ones a retairement plan should be put in place. Last dirty plant should be retaired no later then 2030.k) Tax the polution based on quantity of fuel burned, not on arbitrary implemented EURO polution standard – Starting with a base tax from 2021 and increase it by 10% each year. When the pollution tax get to 100%, this should reflect the actual cost to remove the polution from the air.l) Set rules for new constructions in order to prepare them for EV adoption.• Each new house built should have trifasic power, an AC charger installed and should allow at least 3.5kWh to be used for EV charge at all times.• Each new house should be required by law to generate some of its power from solar. The excese power should be transfered to the grid or stored in batteries for later consumption. If there is no direct sun light to that house, the local authorities should decide if there is feasible to install fotovoltaic pannels on the land.• Each new apartment complex should be required to equip each parking lot with an EV AC charger.• Each new commercial building should have EV chargers installed for at least 10% by 2020 and increase by 10% each year, of the parking lots.• Each new commercial building should be require to have solar pannels installed on top. The sourface required should be set by local authorities considering the maximum amount of space that can be used for power generation.• Each new hypermarket or big store should be required to install EV chargers for public or customer use.m) Local authorities should set strict rules for construction equipment used inside cities. Basicaly no ICE powered equipment should be allowed inside cities - Resonable timeline 2025n) Implement diferent electricity tariffs for electricity used for EVs. Electricity used by EVs should be charged different than electricity used by other equipment. This should have separate meassurement and be charged using different tariffs, specialy if the charge task place during off pick.o) Grid operators should be required to install EV charging stations that can be used by their customers (identification done by RFID card or app). So you charge wherever there is a charger installed by a utility operator and the payment is done through your electricity invoice. The utility operators communicate one with the other the data regarding there customer charging feeds.p) Limit ICE cars registration between countries. An ICE car that was already registered once in one european country, should not be registered in another country even if the owner has changed. This will limit the migration of diesel ICE cars from west to east when drastic messures will be imposed in cities that treat pollution more seriously than others.q) No publicity or media coverage permited for a fossel fuel powered vehicle or tool. This include all types of commercials starting with mass media coverage, car shows, news, internet adds, and ending with new movies – Resonable timeline: as soon as possible, but no later than 2020.4. Allocate the necessary resourcesThe sooner we do this, the less financial impact this change will have on European economy but a reasonable timeframe in my opinion is very hard to be less than 10 years, but not impossible. If we try to do this change sooner the cost will be much higher; if we do this later then 10 years the cost will be paid in human lives; if we follow the current timeframes vehiculated by European Union – 2050, most likely we will breath using masks by the time we get rid of all ICE.This change will require an unprecedented amount of financial resources but in the same time if is done correctly and in a predictable and planed manner, will stimulate our economy and create more jobs that will end. This change will not be a minor one and not acting in time will not make the problem just disappear, it will just make it worse and harder to correct. It will be best to have a solid plan in place and allocate all the necessary resources to implement this change correctly and in time.5. Inform the people correctlyOne of the most important issues against Climate Change action is that the wrong information is transmitted to the general public by those that have interests in not acting. There are even car companies that compare electricity generation with fossil fuel production and they end up misinforming the public that is the same to burn fossil fuel in millions of cars inside cities, with burning same fossil fuel in order to generate electricity. There is a company that has a marketing campaign that is telling people that their hybrid junk is freeing people for the plug and their garbage is self-charging – using fossil fuel.This type of misinformation needs to stop if we want to fight Climate Change in the years to come. Spreading misinformation in order to gain profit is always wrong, but doing this to slow Climate Change actions should be considered criminal.General public should be informed about this change in a correct manner, by people that know what they are talking about and any attempt to misslead the general public or just create unnecessary doubt should not be permitted at all. The fine should be far greater than the gain for misinformation about Climate Change.This is the end of part I, please share this material, leave a comment below and stay tuned for part II.Published by Marius Șerban at 12:18 on 15.04.2019 [EEST]