Global Energy Independence: What it Means for Transportation
Posted on by Isabelle Brown
For the last 150 years, fossil fuels have been powering the vast majority of the world’s energy. Today, they are responsible for supplying about 80% of energy around the globe.
We now find ourselves standing at a critical crossroads as a world community. How do we even begin to repair the damage our dependence on fossil fuels has caused? Examining the extreme consequences of our reliance on non-renewable energy and exploring our path forward will take an enormous transition to full decarbonization.
With a world effort so profound, there is good reason to recognize a day like Global Energy Independence Day. On July 10, commemorating the birthday of engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla, the message of renewable resources and energy independence is spread worldwide.
It doesn't take an expert to recognize that relying so heavily on fossil fuels cannot continue in any sustainable way. We must evolve the technology that powers our world. The transportation sector is a substantial part of this.
Transportation and Energy Usage
To put it plainly, transportation requires an enormous amount of energy. Globally, transportation of people and goods accounts for about 25% of total energy consumption around the world according to the Energy Information Administration.
You would think that the majority of this is thanks to planes, ships, and other large vehicles. Believe it or not, it’s actually light-duty and passenger vehicles that account for the majority of energy in the transportation sector worldwide—by a longshot.
How can this be possible? Think about the sheer quantity of cars and personal vehicles in the world. As of 2022, there were about 1.446 billion cars on Earth. Of these 1.446 billion cars, 19% of them are in the United States. In the running of major countries, the US has the highest vehicles per capita at 890 vehicles per thousand people.
Producing all these vehicles, the gas that powers them, and the CO2 they produce over time are tipping the scale to make the current automotive industry extremely inefficient and a direct harm to our planet.
Alternative Transportation to the Rescue
What are we doing as a global community to curb this dependence on fossil fuel-powered transportation?
Prioritizing the funding of public transportation.
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Mass transit combats our car-centric cities by giving people a cleaner, safer, and more efficient way to get around. Public transportation improves our economy by creating jobs, reduces air pollution and traffic congestion, and encourages a healthy lifestyle. When people have access to safe, reliable, and affordable public transit, they are lifted from the burden of feeling their only option is to buy a car. The decarbonization of public transit is furthering this conversation even more with electric bus fleets making their way into cities around the world.
Electrifying the automotive industry
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Making a monumental change to one of the largest global contributors of pollution will surely have enormous impact. Even with the amount of energy it will take to power a world of electric vehicles, “electricity across the board is cleaner and cheaper as a fuel for vehicles, even when that electricity comes from the dirtiest grid.” Electric and hybrid vehicles on any state’s power grid will yield less greenhouse gas emissions than current gasoline-powered cars. With the world coming together to electrify, states in the US will only continue to clean their power grids, making the benefits of EVs even stronger.
Walkable, bikeable cities
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Do you know what’s even cleaner than electric vehicles? No vehicles! A world where everyone lives within walking or biking distance of their needs, communities, friends, and jobs seems like a dream. Communities and cities with the safe infrastructure to allow this seem just as out of reach. However, around the world, cities in countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Norway, and many more are paving the way for bike-centric urban planning. While going electric is an excellent goal for our world community, being able to depend on our bodies and bicycles instead of a vehicle at all is true individual energy independence.
Green transportation in the workplace
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Organizations around the world are now formulating company-wide sustainability missions to be a part of the positive change we want to see. We have over 40 years of experience with are company-wide commuter programs that help organizations meet their goals. We work with companies nationwide to get their employees out of their single-occupancy vehicles and into vanpools, carpools, and other green forms of commuting. The companies we have worked with have been able to decrease their carbon emissions by hundreds of thousands of pounds of CO2 while saving their employees money every single day. Does this sound like something you want to ask your boss or HR department about? Learn more about easy commute or our consulting program today!
The Real Road to Independence
A quote that has stuck with me while researching for this piece can be found in the Center for American Progress’s article: 5 Reasons Why the United States Can’t Drill Its Way to Energy Independence.
The quote reads: “We can never be energy independent while we rely on a fuel source that is both controlled by the global market and highly susceptible to international conflict.”
A lot of the mainstream conversation regarding energy independence centers solely around control, pipelines, and foreign oil. Opportunity has been framed in a way that incorrectly convinces people that more drilling on US soil is our ideal route to progress.
The way to energy independence is simple: Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.