The Arctic as we’ve known it is fast disappearing. Recent scientific research at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science has indicated that, for instance, the Greenland ice sheet now faces long-lasting and irreversible melting due to global warming. Permafrost is also thawing decades earlier than expected, thereby exacerbating climate change. Additionally, over the past half century, sea ice – a one to five metre thick layer of frozen sea water – has retreated or thinned out across large parts of the Arctic. For several years in a row now, the summer sea ice extent has reached record lows, and by some estimates, summer sea ice could disappear completely as soon as the 2020s.

Sanghamitra Chattopadhyay

The Arctic as we’ve known it is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/oct/13/arctic-ice-melting-climate-change-global-warming">fast disappearing</a>. Recent <a href="https://ncas.ac.uk/greenland-ice-sheet-faces-irreversible-melting/">scientific research</a> at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science has indicated that, for instance, the Greenland ice sheet now faces long-lasting and irreversible melting due to global warming. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/driven-by-climate-change-thawing-permafrost-is-radically-changing-the-arctic-landscape">Permafrost</a> is also thawing decades earlier than expected, thereby exacerbating climate change. Additionally, over the past half century, sea ice – a one to five metre thick layer of frozen sea water – has retreated or thinned out across large parts of the Arctic. For several years in a row now, the summer sea ice extent has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191129-what-will-an-ice-free-arctic-look-like">reached record lows</a>, and by some estimates, summer sea ice could disappear completely as soon as the 2020s. Such tipping points or “points of no return” are already approaching <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/29/arctic-ocean-acidifying-up-to-four-times-as-fast-as-other-oceans-study-finds#:~:text=Acidification%20of%20the%20western%20Arctic,because%20of%20fossil%20fuel%20use.">faster than predictions</a>, which means that sea levels are permanently rising around the world due to increased melting of mainly land, and to some extent, sea ice. Meanwhile, water expands as it warms, a phenomenon known as thermal expansion, which is another major reason for global sea level rise.
Contrary to popular belief, the Arctic is far from being an untouched wilderness. Humans have been living in the region in close harmony with nature for hundreds of years, tourism is expanding, and scientists have been on numerous expeditions in the Arctic, at least for a hundred years, on which they have attempted to piece together the many layers of interactions and feedback cycles between air, water, ice, land and vegetation in the unique Arctic ecosystem.
Ocean currents and the increase in human activity in the region have meant that the region is also displaying similar levels of plastic pollution as the rest of the world now, due to both local and faraway sources. There is initial evidence that such plastic pollution may further influence climate change as trapped microplastics likely change the ice’s characteristics. On the one hand, they may enhance the albedo effect, that is, the ice’s capacity to reflect sunlight, in effect, changing both its permeability and reducing the absorption of solar radiation. On the other hand, when sea ice melts and the microplastics are released, the darker particles, in addition to the shrinking ocean ice, may promote a more open ocean that has a darker surface that causes seawater to hold more radiation and heat. Unsurprisingly, warmer waters result in further sea ice loss, and the cycle of warming continues.
The Arctic ocean has been historically responsible for the absorption of a third of all of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. However, rapid loss of sea ice driven by the rise in global greenhouse gases, and some changes to the albedo effect as mentioned above, are increasing the rate of carbon dioxide take-up in the Arctic when compared to that in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Antarctic and sub-Antarctic basins. In general, faster warming, and the resulting rapid ocean acidification, are together creating a feedback loop known as Arctic amplification. The Arctic is now found to be warming at about four times the global average rate over the past four decades. If greenhouse gases remain at current levels, the Arctic could warm by a whopping 4 degrees celsius by 2050 with unprecedented consequences.
The Arctic region is a vast circumpolar area surrounding the North Pole, encompassing eight Arctic States - Canada, Denmark (including Greenland), Norway, Russia, parts of the United States, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland. The Greenland ice sheet alone has lost three and a half trillion tonnes of ice since 2003, contributing almost 1 mm to sea level per year, and accounting for around a quarter of total sea level rise globally. With ocean heating set to double from current levels by the end of the century, sea levels at the turn of the century could permanently remain two metres higher than current levels. Needless to say, the rapid changes in the Arctic has had a profound effect on regional weather patterns and wildlife. However, what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay contained in the Arctic as the world’s oceans and water bodies are intimately connected. For instance, although the Arctic Ocean constitutes one percent of the total volume of the world’s oceans, it receives over 10 percent of the global water discharge from rivers.
Recent data shows that atmospheric temperature rise, and the consequent warming of oceans, changes in sea ice cover, melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, and the movement of jet streams away from their normal courses in the Arctic, are having far-reaching effects and are impacting millions of people living in lower latitudes, especially those in low lying and coastal areas, most adversely affecting climate vulnerable nations in the Global South through rapidly rising sea levels. Moreover, warmer oceans and the dramatic change in sensitive sea ice are fuelling more extreme weather worldwide by intensifying and elongating extreme rain events, adding energy to cyclones and changing where they form, and causing more intense marine heatwaves and wildfires in the drier parts of the Arctic. For instance, the devastating floods in Eastern Australia were likely exacerbated due to warmer waters.
Besides, biological life and ecosystems are being impacted by warmer oceans in ways we are not fully aware of, such as the continual decline in snow crab populations observed in the Pacific Ocean recently, although the loss of coral reefs has been well documented for a while now. All of this is occurring at 1.1 degrees of atmospheric warming since the industrial revolution. Under scenarios in which global warming goes beyond 2°C, global sea level rise will likely persist for tens of thousands of years, according to new research, meaning that cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Dhaka and Miami may no longer exist in the coming decades.
All evidence now points to the increasing urgency to reverse climate change and not just stabilise it, or else more critical tipping points will be reached when the ice sheet has declined to a threshold mass. Getting to net-zero 2050 will not prevent ocean heating beyond 2050 as ocean heat will continue to build up and sea levels will continue to rise well beyond that time frame due to fossil fuel use and related human activities today. Worryingly, global climate pacts, in particular, the Paris Agreement provided a benchmark for global climate action through the 1.5 goal but made no mention of fossil fuels. Measures such as the European Union’s fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty must be widely endorsed urgently because we need to stop developing any new fossil fuel infrastructure today.
Protection of communities that are already strained such as of the Sámi people who are indigenous to the European/Nordic parts of the Arctic, namely Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Russian Federation, is also vital such as through more stringent regulations around natural resource extraction and shipping in the Arctic Ocean. These communities worry that melting sea ice and ice-free summers in the region will create easier access to minerals and oils as well as potentially cost-saving shipping routes along the Northern Sea Route, which have remained untapped so far. Any indiscriminate use of these resources due to need, greed, and/or tax benefits, will put their habitats, culture and livelihoods at further risk. On Sámi land, unpredictable snow and ice conditions driven by climate change have already impacted Sámi traditions, livelihoods and language through changes in their reindeer herding culture as reindeer no longer have access to the ideal Arctic conditions they need to thrive and the Sámi have had to adapt accordingly. While supporting the need to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, the Sámi believe that the race to renewables driven by the call for a “green” transition would substantially increase the demand for minerals for batteries and wind energy production, which can be more harmful than climate change in the longer term if their extraction does not maintain a delicate balance with nature. The Sámi perspective is to keep climate mitigation measures such as renewable energy projects local, small-scale and close to businesses and communities that need them.
Importantly, further concrete compensatory measures must be agreed upon at international conventions for island and indigenous communities across the world as well as for those who are least responsible for climate change and are yet most vulnerable to it. In this regard, pushing for <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/addressing-loss-and-damage-practical-insights-tackling-multidimensional-risks-ldcs-and-sids-july-2022?utm_source=sendinblue&amp;utm_campaign=COP27%20General%20Announcement&amp;utm_medium=email">“Loss and Damage” funds</a> represented a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/05/climate-loss-and-damage-why-its-such-a-big-deal-at-cop27">crucial component</a> in global efforts, especially at <a href="https://cop27.eg/#/">COP27</a>, towards just reparations to developing nations such as small island developing states that are already suffering the worst impacts of sea level rise through natural disasters and external economic shocks while having historically contributed less than 1 percent of global carbon emissions.
Overall, the Arctic is a warning bell of a collapsing climate system. The repercussions are massive and can’t be ignored any longer. We must, without delay, halt the root causes of global warming, namely, our addictions to fossil fuels and a neoliberal mindset that promotes extractivism. While some degree of climate change is here to stay, we can still conserve what remains of the Arctic’s fragile ecosystem through the establishment of international measures such as marine conservation areas and limits to the scale of renewable energy projects and commercial fishing activities in the high seas of the central Arctic Ocean. To end with another nugget of wisdom from the Sámi community: we must work with a changing climate using our present knowledge and capabilities, and not fight against it. Here’s hoping we will act before it’s too late.
illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability &amp; Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

A disappearing Arctic and its ramifications: will we act before it’s too late?

Our current narrow and siloed ways of gathering and imparting knowledge translates into the workplace and into policymaking spheres and creates real barriers where a more interconnected way of thinking and an understanding of relations are key to addressing the world’s biggest challenges.

What do <a href="https://blog.nature.org/science/2016/04/18/10-unexpected-impacts-of-climate-change/">allergies, Belgian beers and Golf season</a> have in common? How about king crabs, diarrhoea and orchids? However surprising it may be, there is a common thread across all these topics – climate change. A warming planet not only has the most obvious effect – it prolongs summers and we experience more heatwaves – but it also has an impact on many other aspects of life: it makes allergies worse as pollen season expands, causes diarrhoea to become more common in infants, and encourages an invasion of king crabs in Antarctica’s continental shelf, disrupting its delicate natural ecosystem. To the dismay of the orchid enthusiasts among us, orchids may become scarce too, while some famous golf greens are already considered unplayable due to intense storms and drought conditions brought on by a changing climate. Still wondering how Belgian beers fit in here? No, we won’t be drinking more beer to cool off in the hot summers! Rather, a good Belgian ale happens to require specific “cool” conditions for spontaneous fermentation, or for microorganisms to do their work. A warming climate threatens this process meaning fewer beers for us all.
Now imagine the efforts of paediatricians, breweries and botanists, when they all try to address these issues separately without understanding the root cause of them all. Imagine the time and resources that are wasted in these unfruitful pursuits while a warming climate remains unresolved. And now imagine how effective our efforts would be if we only had to prevent and manage further warming, rather than treating each issue disparately as and when they come up as we tend to do.
By now, most of us will agree that we must address climate change urgently and move to a more sustainable future, but at this point in time, I believe that it&#x27;s no longer just about the destination; more importantly, it&#x27;s about the pace and longevity of our progress. For 50 years, society and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/02/for-50-years-governments-have-failed-to-act-on-climate-change-no-more-excuses#:~:text=Science%20shows%20action%20this%20decade,to%20act%2C%20perhaps%20economics%20will.">policymakers have known about climate change</a> and environmental degradation, and yet, by the IPCC’s estimates, the sum total of policies in place today will take us to a world hotter by 2.7C and perhaps even a catastrophic 3.6C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Back in 1972, the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/conferences/environment/stockholm1972">Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment</a> recognised that the crises in security, health, development and the environment were intimately linked, and that a concerted effort was needed by all of society, all of government, and all nations. Today, however, time and again, the UN’s efforts at joined-up decision making between and within governments fail. People and planet continue to be plundered, while narrow interests are promoted for the benefit of a few. A temperature rise of 1.1C has already caused unprecedented summer temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius or more in Europe this year, <a href="https://euobserver.com/green-economy/155578">leaving thousands dead or disabled</a>. Consider then what 2.7C might do. The current rate of global warming already makes extreme weather events <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2331290-climate-change-made-uk-40c-heatwave-at-least-10-times-more-likely/">10 times more likely</a> than under normal climatic conditions, so we certainly have no time to lose.
While fewer beers do not create an immediate existential threat for us, impacts like these indicate how widespread and often disastrous the consequences of a single climatic phenomenon can be. In essence, a warming climate is a <a href="https://www.un.org/peacebuilding/fr/news/climate-change-recognized-%E2%80%98threat-multiplier%E2%80%99-un-security-council-debates-its-impact-peace">threat multiplier</a>, meaning that it further escalates ecosocial, political and economic tensions in already fragile and conflict-ridden settings. It reinforces the systemic biases that already exist in society. For instance, where women depend more on and yet have less access to natural resources, they are the first and the hardest hit when climate change reduces the availability of food, water or fuel. This puts added pressure on young girls, who often drop out of school to help their mothers manage the increased burden. As climate change drives migration and conflict, <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/explainer/2022/02/explainer-how-gender-inequality-and-climate-change-are-interconnected#:~:text=As%20climate%20change%20drives%20conflict,and%20other%20forms%20of%20violence.">women and girls face increased vulnerabilities</a> to all forms of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, human trafficking and child marriage, creating a vicious cycle of vulnerability to future disasters. Long histories of colonisation, violence and systematic discrimination have created deep inequalities like these that disadvantage some from the outset. Inequities of poverty, caste systems, racism and sexism also intersect with each other, denying people who are already marginalised their human rights and equal opportunities. These impacts further extend across generations. Understanding these intersections and <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/6/explainer-intersectional-feminism-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters">intersectionalities</a> and acting on them will make our fight against climate change much more effective and long-lasting.
During my PhD, when I was studying about the very specific topic of renewable energy technology adoption, I realised that every “good” solution to climate change, generally some kind of “green” technology, also has many invisible layers, and I felt that not highlighting these issues enough are a big gap in our education system. When it comes to climate mitigation strategies, new technologies are obviously very welcome. But few are aware of the fact that essential components in “clean” technologies such as electric cars are very much linked to environmental damage and human rights abuses as well. While we applaud Western drivers for switching to a Tesla, people living in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/feb/19/we-are-afraid-erin-brockovich-pollutant-linked-to-global-electric-car-boom">remote islands in Indonesia</a> are struggling to find clean and safe water due to contamination from mining activities in their neighbourhoods, <a href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/10/28/south-americas-lithium-triangle-communities-are-being-sacrificed-to-save-the-planet">South American communities</a> are experiencing a water crisis, and indigenous people in the Nordic Arctic fear that a race to renewable energy may mean indiscriminate exploitation of pristine Arctic resources, damaging and even eradicating local livelihoods, cultures and languages in the process. We definitely need to acknowledge that we are currently dealing with a crisis and use innovative technology to deal with it, but we must go a step further and be also equipped to see how different communities are battling various, interconnected issues all at once, so that we are better able to stand in solidarity with one another, question power structures, and speak out and act against the root causes of inequalities, so that we can create a future that truly leaves no one behind. Using an intersectional lens means that we can also recognise the historical contexts surrounding fossil fuel use and prevent history from repeating itself.
I believe that education will have a lot to do with turning things around. Our current narrow and siloed ways of gathering and imparting knowledge translates into the workplace and into policymaking spheres and creates real barriers where a more interconnected way of thinking and an understanding of relations are key to addressing the world’s biggest challenges. When we don’t resolve climate change or look at solving it with no regard for gender equality, biodiversity or the welfare of indigenous communities, we create further issues that are incredibly difficult to solve alone. Instead, an interdisciplinary approach to learning and problem solving allows us to join the dots early on and synthesise knowledge in multiple areas, making us more holistic problem solvers and better critical thinkers. What’s more, I believe that this mindset shift urges us to acknowledge the complexity of the human condition and allows us to consider a range of innovative ways to think about and resolve the pressing issues of our time. Who would’ve thought of <a href="https://drawdown.org/publications/drawdown-lift-policy-brief-girls-education-and-family-planning">educating girls as a potent climate action strategy</a>, but <a href="https://www.greenamerica.org/climate-change-100-reasons-hope/top-10-solutions-reverse-climate-change">it really is</a>!
I dare say we would be better placed to deal with these huge and complex issues if we choose to further expand our technical and emotional vocabulary through new forms of learning, in particular when we promote more participatory, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, intercultural and intergenerational dialogue and thinking, where we forgo the singular infatuation with “knowing it all” or “mastering” a single domain and instead, leave more room for interconnectivity between domains, intersubjectivity between people, as well as reflection, rest, and recovery, encouraging self-awareness in the process along with confidence in our place and purpose in this world, so that we are better able to contribute to improving the world according to our best capacities.
A cross-disciplinary education system that helps us express ourselves adequately according to our lived experiences, consolidate the experiences faced by different groups, and co-create solutions through an interdisciplinary lens, serves to illuminate the connections between global issues and all fights for justice and liberation. Imagine, for a moment, an economist who truly understood the ecological limits of our planet, and therefore stopped perpetrating the myth of infinite growth and supported alternative models of human well-being instead. Imagine that engineers who are traditionally obsessed with least-cost, high-efficiency pathways are co-trained in the environmental and social sciences, are thus knowledgeable about the impact of resource extraction on local habitats and indigenous communities, and thereby empowered to make better decisions on where scarce resources for new technologies come from. Imagine anthropologists were also trained in the natural sciences, and were able to track the impact of a changing climate on languages and cultures, providing a wealth of knowledge and expertise in their preservation such that future generations did not lose out on the wisdom of their ancestors.
If we are to change the world and tackle the ongoing crises of climate change, war and increasing inequalities, we need a system reset, starting with a reset in how we educate our young people. There is clearly an appetite for learning about the climate crisis using tools that are used in non-formal education systems, but change must also come at the formal institutional level where academic curricula are made more inclusive, diverse, open and relevant, especially when it comes to climate resilience. Building such curricula must be a collaborative project between students and teachers interested and engaged in creating a more liveable future. Where climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health, there is little room for hierarchy across disciplines; each is necessary in its own right for grasping the bigger picture. At a time in history when we have almost missed out on a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a sustainable future for all, we must harness all kinds of strengths to better understand the issues at hand and find solutions that work for all.
After having advocated for compulsory climate education in Ireland and Europe for the past few years, I awoke to some positive news recently. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/12/barcelona-students-to-take-mandatory-climate-crisis-module-from-2024#:~:text=All%20students%20at%20the%20University,conducting%20a%20sit%2Din%20occupation.">University students in Barcelona</a> have voted to take a mandatory climate crisis module from 2024, the world’s first example of students taking the climate crisis seriously and university management in turn bowing to their pressure. This is not just another course on sustainable development either; instead, it combines the social and ecological aspects of the crisis, which are closely interrelated. I believe that to finance such movements in educational institutions is to finance the survival of people, planet and nature. If we are to take one action now, let us all push for climate and interdisciplinary education in our own institutions by putting pressure on university management and curricula developers. If any among us are teachers, let us use our power and position to bring interdisciplinary climate education to students and train ourselves in this area. At the same time, we can visit the <a href="https://education-for-climate.ec.europa.eu/_en">European Commission&#x27;s Education for Climate Coalition</a> online platform to learn more about innovative education solutions for environmental sustainability and join the European community of students and educators to share best practices in sustainability studies.
I not only hope that we can change the world through the transformative power of education, but I also believe that we can. Let’s turn this crisis around by supporting and creating an education system that broadens our perspectives and teaches us to look out for, explore and leverage relations and interconnections. In that sense, education can be a powerful impact multiplier in the face of the myriad socio-technological and ecological threats we have to contend with today.
Illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability &amp; Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

Re-inventing education in the era of climate change

The latest IPCC report is a stark reminder for humanity of the need to act urgently on climate to have any hope of meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Although electric vehicles are not the be-all and end-all of clean transportation solutions, they are definitely worth exploring further. 

The <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/">latest IPCC report</a> is a stark reminder for humanity of the need to act urgently on climate to have any hope of meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Accordingly, all sectors of the economy must decarbonise rapidly. Transportation is still notably one of the slowest sectors to transition to low carbon fuel sources, although massive efforts have been made globally to electrify certain modes of transport such as light commercial vehicles and passenger cars. Electric vehicles (EVs) are not only technologically more efficient, but they also release no carbon emissions or local pollutants such as SOx and NOx gases at the point of use, which makes them attractive from an environmental point of view in their locations of use. There are still emissions, however, that are associated with the power source and <a href="https://www.investmentmonitor.ai/insights/batteries-are-bad-for-the-environment">battery manufacturing</a>. Moreover, when vehicles are imported into a country, there are additional carbon emissions associated with transportation and other supply chain processes.
In addition, there is a large body of evidence suggesting that EVs cause <a href="https://unctad.org/news/developing-countries-pay-environmental-cost-electric-car-batteries">environmental degradation</a> in addition to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01735-z">social justice issues</a> in countries where its components, namely lithium and other raw materials, are extracted.
But although EVs are not the be-all and end-all of clean transportation solutions, they are definitely part of a sustainable future, and are worth exploring further.
Several life cycle assessments have shown that emissions from battery manufacturing can be paid off within as little as <a href="https://www.virta.global/blog/electric-cars-pollution-facts">two years of vehicle use</a>, which provides a stark contrast to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles that spew out emissions and pollutants for life. As battery technology has developed and manufacturing processes have benefited from economies of scale, battery costs have drastically reduced, meaning that EVs, once almost exclusively the sole privilege of luxury car owners and wealthy tech enthusiasts, are now affordable for many middle-class drivers upfront. Besides, EVs are cheaper to run and maintain over their lifetimes. With further technological development, more EV models are expected to reach price parity with traditional ICE vehicles and most models should become cheaper with time even without taking into account the vehicles’ <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2020/03/28/check-out-this-electric-vehicle-total-cost-of-ownership-calculator/">total cost of ownership</a>.
In general, there are three predominant types of electric cars in use today: battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). An HEV has a petrol or diesel engine that works in combination with a separate electric motor, and can drive using either the electric motor alone, just the engine, or a combination of the two. The on-board battery that powers a hybrid car’s electric motor is relatively small, meaning that although the battery can be recharged by the car as it drives along, the car can only drive short distances using the battery alone. A PHEV has an extra battery and electric motor to support the work of a petrol or diesel engine. The main difference, however, is that the battery is bigger, allowing the car to drive much further on electric power alone but also necessitating plugging in the car to recharge the battery. Finally, fully electric cars or BEVs have the largest battery power but no engine support and need to be recharged via an electrical socket. Countries that have high uptake of EVs often tend to have a large share of PHEVs and HEVs as they provide a suitable ‘transition technology’ option. There has been a recent push in the EU however to phase out support for PHEVs and HEVs due to concerns over the true environmental benefits of these types of EVs. BEVs may therefore form the largest share of EVs in the future. Although the high initial investment, range anxiety and lack of access to charging points are a few of the factors that still make consumers hesitant to buy BEVs, big strides have been made in developing battery technology and improving the range of BEVs. An average BEV now easily has a bigger range than the average distance a European driver commutes per day.
However, even in places where the range of BEV models precludes the need for an extensive public charging network or where the charging network is already well developed, range anxiety is still often cited as a strong barrier to purchasing BEVs, especially amongst long distance drivers. In these cases, the barrier may sometimes be in psychological rather than material terms. Public charging infrastructure still needs to be revamped in many countries, however. As the number of BEVs on the road grows, the expansion of public charging infrastructure still lags behind, meaning that countries that have traditionally had a well-developed charging infrastructure in place are now facing the prospects of increasing queues and waiting times. Overall, the installation of charging points has been a classic chicken-and-egg story, with debates arising around which needs to come first to promote the other, as investment in extensive new infrastructure often follows a demonstration of the need for it, while EVs cannot run without sufficient infrastructure to power them. At the very least, home charge points for slow charging need to be ensured for all households, whether they currently own an EV or not, in order to prepare for an all-electric future. Drivers looking for a rapid charger at home may require a home upgrade, however, as most residential property would not currently have a three-phase electricity supply and are therefore not three-phase compatible to support rapid charging safely and effectively.
Certain other <a href="https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ditccom2019d5_en.pdf">challenges exist</a> such as concerns around materials and mining for battery manufacturing as alluded to earlier. The elements currently used in lithium-ion batteries are predominantly lithium, nickel and cobalt for which there may be a global mining capacity shortfall unless significant investments are made now to meet projected BEV demand. These metals are particularly scarce in Europe. For context, over <a href="https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/features/top-cobalt-producing-countries/#:~:text=Congo%20accounted%20for%20more%20than,this%20increasingly%20sought%2Dafter%20commodity.">70% of the world&#x27;s entire cobalt production</a> in 2019, totalling around 100,000 tonnes, was sourced from Congo in the Global South. Due to dubious labour laws in some of these countries, and because there is very little legislation governing the sourcing of raw materials in the Global North, human rights violations in the form of aiding and abetting child labour and instigating conflict are not uncommon side-effects of mining for minerals that make up technologies such as EVs. In addition to these social challenges, environmental challenges abound. Extraction of lithium has, for instance, increased competition for scarce water resources in the world’s driest regions in Latin America, while mining of cobalt and other metals has caused extensive groundwater depletion, soil contamination and other forms of environmental degradation in parts of Africa, thereby compelling forced migration of affected communities away from their indigenous lands. Furthermore, the dust from excavation of cobalt and graphite contains toxic metals that cause respiration diseases and birth defects in exposed communities.
While research is ongoing to reduce or <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/22/21451670/tesla-cobalt-free-cathodes-mining-battery-nickel-ev-cost">eliminate the need for mining</a> in the first place, moving to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/20/electric-car-batteries-what-happens-to-them">circular economy approach</a> in the use and disposal of batteries now will mean that more of these minerals stay in use for longer and are made available locally in Europe at the end of life of a vehicle without necessitating the mining of new raw materials for every new car. The latest battery chemistries could also help circumvent some of these social justice implications by scaling back on scarce and toxic mineral use and using more abundant minerals such as <a href="https://www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com/news/battery-technology/new-ev-battery-technology-announced-that-triples-energy-and-halves-cost.html">silicon</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/sodium-batteries-power-new-electric-car/">sodium </a>instead to make the next generation batteries. Importantly, it will be crucial to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/aug/10/electric-cars-big-battery-waste-problem-lithium-recycling">increase the fraction of lithium-ion batteries that are currently recycled</a> through <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/478406">research into technological innovations</a> and investment into stronger recycling capabilities such that societies do not end up with a battery waste crisis. Overall, the improper planning of the end of life of vehicles could exacerbate water and air pollution issues and cause adverse health problems for recyclers that handle these materials.
A further concern relates to the need to recharge BEVs through the electricity grid, which is a whole different ball game to refilling a vehicle at a gas station. Not only does it entail significant behavioural changes for the user, but peak electricity demand may also become less predictable and with more and more renewable capacity on the grid, grid resilience may suffer to the extent that blackouts and brownouts become more common. However, energy analysts have predicted that this is an <a href="https://www.leaseplan.com/en-ca/electric-cars-blackouts/">unlikely situation</a> at least for a good few years especially with the onset of <a href="https://electrek.co/2020/05/19/tesla-bidirectional-charging-ready-game-changing-features/">bidirectional charging capability</a>.
Eventually, smart metres will also help manage demand more effectively and battery storage will have developed sufficiently to strengthen the grid’s delicate management of instantaneous demand and supply of electricity. Vehicle-to-grid solutions are another excellent demand response strategy to help with grid resiliency wherein the vehicle acts as an energy storage system and returns power to the grid or alters its charging rate when demand for energy peaks. Our current grid systems are however less able to cope with ultrafast charging, which has started to penetrate the charging infrastructure market globally. Although they have the potential to drastically reduce charging times, making refuelling times comparable to filling an ICE vehicle tank at a gas station, they are power hungry and expensive, and therefore a poor choice when home or workplace charging can be used instead and is often the preferred choice anyway. Fast charging also runs down battery lifetimes faster. Currently, ultrafast public chargers have a place in some public venues such as motorway junctions but have to be supported with additional substation capacity close to the installed charging stations.
Finally, while high income individuals have tended to be the primary BEV takers thus far, public incentives such as grants, tax breaks and special privileges such as parking spaces for fuel efficient cars and access to bus lanes have helped other socio-economic groups perceive BEVs as true competitors to conventional petrol and diesel cars. Community take up is however not randomly distributed. Rather, it tends to be geographically clustered and socially connected, creating spatial pockets of adopters and non-adopters. Incentives like subsidies remain the best way to help reduce the economic burden of investing in EVs and thereby motivate individual uptake. However, societies cannot have large, sustained uptake using economic approaches alone if social processes such as social contagion are not harnessed simultaneously, specifically the influence of early adopters on other segments of the population through increased visibility and word-of-mouth recommendation. Social norms form the basis of much radical transformation through the construction of informal understandings of acceptable behaviour within social groups while establishing and maintaining trust within communities. Policymakers must take advantage of every tool at our disposal; peer effects are an often ignored yet critical facilitator of new technology uptake.
Notwithstanding the many benefits of electrifying transport, current transportation models are unsustainable in many countries. Planning to convert every ICE vehicle to a BEV will help to massively curb carbon emissions and local pollutant levels and is a welcome move. However, restricting passenger travel to individual cars provides little benefit for the optimal use of our limited land resources. With more and more urban spaces being dedicated to car parking in most industrialised countries, private car ownership has become a poor model of scarce resource use. In the UK, for example, private cars are not typically used at full capacity, with the average car transporting ~1.6 passengers for any given journey. Alternative pathways such as mass transit options that run on renewable electricity or other clean fuels and those that encourage mobility as a service offer opportunities to reduce traffic congestion on roads, are much more environmentally sustainable and potentially cheaper for the end user. Developing an efficient public transportation system especially in rural areas and redesigning our cities and towns to be more walkable and cycle-friendly are also more socially equitable and healthier solutions. Examples from India, China and others in emerging market economies show how public transport can be effectively implemented to serve the needs of vast numbers of commuters even at peak hours.
Overall, we need to rethink why we need transportation facilities in the first place and bring offices, shopping centres and other amenities closer to people. While the electrification of private vehicles has their place, most human needs can be met with even more sustainable alternatives. We need a plurality of solutions that rely less on mass electrification to solve the climate conundrum, and instead use the energy transition as a unique opportunity to completely upend how we design our neighbourhoods and lifestyles to meet broader societal goals. Given that we are also on the cusp of a biodiversity crisis, we have for instance an urgent need for more green areas that nurture more biodiverse habitats in our urban spaces. The climate emergency provides a unique opportunity for us to create a more connected world based on a common purpose and shared values that help us appreciate our place as human beings in an interconnected, complex and intelligent web of life.
Future Thought Leaders is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of rising Energy &amp; Sustainability writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

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Sanghamitra Chattopadhyay Mukherjee

Sanghamitra Chattopadhyay Mukherjee

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