By Sean Goulding Carroll
It’s understandable that the steady stream of horrors from Ukraine commands the global media’s attention – the conflict is immediate, shocking, and requires urgent action. Disturbing images of destroyed homes, bound bodies, and mass graves have sent shockwaves across the West.
However, this article is not about Ukraine or the renewed calls for an immediate ban on fossil fuel imports from Russia. It is about another unfolding catastrophe, one that has struggled to generate the same attention.
Its horrors are sporadic and often dismissed, its impact is damning but slow-moving, and the rhetoric of catastrophe surrounding it seems for many to be overblown.
Climate change remains an existential threat to humanity. Its impacts will drastically shape our future, increasing natural catastrophes, famine, and mass migration.
The latest section of the IPCC report, released on Monday, April 4 and largely overshadowed by Russia’s war, outlines the science and steps humanity must take to ensure the Earth remains liveable.
At this stage, the average global temperature will inevitably rise – our carbon-intensive societies have ensured that (to be clear, the industrial West mostly bears the responsibility for this). But this rise can be limited to 1.5 – 2 degrees Celsius if emissions peak by 2025 and continue to fall, with net-zero reached by 2050.
This is a big ask, with experts split over its feasibility. The most pressing need remains to get off high-polluting fossil fuels.
So far, the shift away from gas and oil has been underwhelming, though ironically, the barbaric war in Ukraine has acted as something of a wake-up call.
But what of transport? The notoriously difficult to decarbonise sector has seen emissions rise as other sectors’ have fallen.
The IPCC report recommendations include a rapid shift to electric vehicles, the use of synthetic fuels and biofuels in the difficult to electrify aviation and maritime sectors, and the deployment of battery technology for trucks and trains.
However, the chief recommendation is the most difficult to implement – reducing demand.
Essentially, this means travelling less. Less flying. Less driving. Fewer trucks on the road.
Here, we find the disconnect between an acceptance that we are in a climate crisis and a culture predicated on growth and consumption.
Transport is portrayed (particularly in advertisements) as inextricably linked with freedom. Any attempts to reduce transport freedom – to tell people that they must leave the car at home or that there will be a steep levy on frequent flyers – is likely to meet resistance. Politicians hoping to be re-elected may be reluctant to curb constituents’ transport options.
So, what can be done? Perhaps a good place to start is in our cities.
Urban areas account for around two-thirds of the bloc’s emissions and are where most Europeans now live, with the continent set to become increasingly urbanised. That makes them ideal arenas for change.
Reallocating road space towards so-called “active travel” modes – walking and cycling – can make it easier for people to choose lower carbon means of getting around. Expanding affordable public transport can make urban car usage largely obsolete. And pedestrianising previously car-clogged roads can transform a city from an obstacle to traverse to a placid area to enjoy.
Of course, doing so will require political courage and an open conversation with city dwellers. But the reality is that unless climate breakdown is kept in check, travel freedom will be unceremoniously curtailed for us.
Road deaths rise as pandemic wanes
It’s hard to put a positive spin on 2020, a year that saw a deadly disease spread like wildfire and much of Europe confined to their homes. But if one was tasked with doing so, they might, after racking their brain, say something about the fall in road deaths that year.
The fall in vehicle-related deaths was offset by deaths from COVID-19, of course, making it somewhat of a hollow achievement on a macro scale. But the fact remains that statistically, 2020 saw the least carnage on the roads in years.
However, as restrictions are lifted and society returns to something approximating normality, deaths on the roads are rising again, statistics released last week by the European Commission show.
Around 19,800 people were killed on EU roads in 2021, one thousand more than in 2020. The positive news is that this remains 3,000 below the fatalities in 2019, before the pandemic.
There are strong discrepancies between member states, with Swedish roads the safest and Romanian roads the most hazardous. Eighteen people died on Swedish roads per one million inhabitants, while in Romania, this figure is 93. The EU average is 44.
“As traffic levels return to normality, we must ensure that we don’t return to pre-pandemic numbers of deaths on our roads,” said EU transport commissioner Adina Vălean, outlining EU measures to make driving safer.
“But this is a shared responsibility with member states, the industry and road users. Every death and serious injury on our roads is avoidable,” she added.
Ryanair calls on the army to sort out Dublin airport security mess
It’s often hard to know when Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is being serious or just courting controversy for a bit of free publicity. Perhaps Ryanair’s latest suggestion lands somewhere in the middle.
Dublin airport is facing a crisis largely of its own making. In reaction to the pandemic bringing aviation to a virtual standstill, DAA, the Irish capital’s airport company, let around 1,000 staff members take voluntary redundancy. But demand is now picking up, and the airport is seriously understaffed.
This is most pronounced in the security division – currently, around 600 people are employed to do security screening, while 900 are needed.
This has resulted in security checks at peak times taking up to 4 hours to pass through. There has been an outpouring of anger over the situation on social media, as passengers complain of missed flights due to the screening calamity.
Ryanair, which is headquartered in Dublin, is not sitting silently by. O’Leary has suggested that some 200 members of the Irish army be drafted in to do the pat-downs at the airport, freeing up other security personnel.
The DAA was unsurprisingly not receptive to the suggestion.
A roundup of the most captivating transport news.
Five takeaways from the IPCC’s report on limiting dangerous global heating
The world is on track to overshoot 1.5C warming. Leaving fossil fuels in the ground, changing lifestyles and removing CO2 from the air are needed to fix the climate, reports Climate Home News.
Spanish police seize luxury yacht of Putin’s friend
The Spanish Civil Guard on Monday seized the Russian-owned luxury yacht Tango, moored at the Real Club Nautico in Palma, on the island of Mallorca, EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported.
Raw materials: why Europe needs to ramp up its battery game
Europe can play a special role in setting standards that have a global impact and prevent batteries from being discarded prematurely, writes Claudius Jehle, CEO and Managing Director of Volytica diagnostics.
Energy prices push Spanish inflation to 37-year high
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, food and oil prices have spiked, and Spain’s transport and farm sectors have staged noisy protests to demand help with crippling gasoline prices.
• Edited by Alice Taylor
