Cleaner Air for Every Household

2013-03-11 Electric cars have garnered a reputation as “zero emissions” vehicles --- but Bjorn Lomborg presents facts and figures that demonstrate the exact opposite. He shows that electric cars are hugely carbon intensive to manufacture. They have an extremely short driving distance, which means they are unreliable – so most consumers have not been interested in purchasing them (even with a generous tax credits of up to $7500).  Added to all of this, the cars barely differ from conventional cars as measured by their carbon emissions. 

BBC Radio 4, Today programme   Few things polarise opinion more than the electric car. It is either a great way to save the planet or a really bad way to get from A to B? The Today programme's Evan Davis wanted to find out more, and took a ride in one with an enthusiast and a sceptic. Bjorn Lomborg, the so-called Sceptical Environmentalist, having written a book of that name, has made a career attacking what he thinks are the irrationalities of the green movement. He is not a fan of electric cars.

Reliable and affordable energy is vital for today's developing and emerging economies. Driven mostly by its fivefold increase in coal use, China's economy has grown 18-fold in the past 30 years and lifted 680 million people out of poverty. Worldwide, almost three billion people still don't have access to modern energy, instead they use firewood, dung and crop waste for cooking and heating indoors, which is so polluting, the World Health Organization estimates they kill one of every 13 people that die on the planet.