Although the automotive industry is running to cut carbon emissions, it is still considered one of the main villains for climate change. According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), transportation is responsible for 14% of man-made GHG (greenhouse gases). Passenger vehicles respond to just part of those emissions. Despite that, BMW and Daimler are being sued in Germany for climate change.
According to Reuters, DUH (Deutsche Umwelthilfe, or German Environmental Aid) decided to sue these companies allegedly for worsening climate change. The lawsuit urges them to legally commit to stop producing combustion engines by 2030. Greenpeace would be preparing a similar one to sue Volkswagen. It would have given the German automaker until October 29 to answer if it accepts anticipating the death of the ICE or not.
Although that may see the applause of environmentalists and climate change activists, things are a lot more nuanced than they may seem. The series of articles written with the help of CLEW show that carmakers may start selling only EVs really soon. However, that might have a massive impact on suppliers and other small businesses that depend on the automotive industry to survive. Many of them already know they will not make it through the electric mobility shift.
Photo: Mercedes-Benz
The lawsuit may be trying to seize an April-2020 decision from the Federal Constitutional Court to build a trend. Germany’s top court ruled that the country was failing to protect future generations against climate change. The decision reduced even more the carbon dioxide Germany can emit compared to 1990 levels (65% instead of 55%) and established that the country will have to be carbon-neutral by 2045.
The controversial decision has been praised by some and also widely criticized. Detractors say it has established climate protection as a super fundamental right – above fundamental rights such as privacy, liberty, and freedom. The court ruling even came to the extreme of saying that “at some point in the future, even serious losses of freedom may be deemed proportionate and justified under constitutional law in order to prevent climate change.”
Another criticism the decision received is that Germany responds to only 2% of the world’s GHG emissions. Even if Germany went carbon neutral now, the impact would be very limited.
It is in such an environment that DUH expects to win its case against BMW and Daimler. If that happens, a legal precedent will allow similar lawsuits to succeed, such as the one Greenpeace plans to file against Volkswagen. Companies may also have to prove their commitment to carbon emission reduction in a legally binding way. But the impact may be way more significant.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this text, automakers and their products are responsible for a small fraction of carbon emissions. The IPCC said that most of it come from electricity and heat production (25%), followed by AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use, with 24%), and industrial activity (21%). As far as we know, meat production may contribute more to global warming than passenger cars. Construction is also a major player in carbon emissions. If DUH’s plan works with BMW and Daimler, the NGO will certainly expand it to these industries and businesses.
Photo: BMW
Feel free to imagine what comes next. We may see new business models emerging to replace the current ones. Still, they should establish themselves thanks to the advantages they’ll be able to offer, not due to lawsuits harming existing companies.
If developed countries become a hostile environment for businesses, developing ones may embrace the “villain” industries facing a hard time where they were created. Politicians will pressure them to keep jobs with their voters, but that may not be enough. Money does not need a passport to travel, and it likes to stay where it is better treated.
The truth is that carbon emissions are a global problem and must be treated as such. Carmakers already knew they had to retire the combustion engine because oil reserves are nearing their end. Most manufacturers are already offering electric cars due to the competition with companies that are doing well with them. The need to comply with strict carbon emission rules also counts a lot.
Penalizing these companies in the shifting process may hurt not only the “evil capitalists” running or investing in them but also workers directly or indirectly connected to these enterprises. Considering the number of industries that emit the most carbon, duh... we wonder who isn’t.
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