SUV sales have exploded over the years, poisoning the atmosphere more than regular passenger cars alone. That is unsurprising, as SUVs are heavier and burn more gasoline per mile. Only electricity generation causes more climate destruction than SUVs. Despite common beliefs that an SUV is safer than a passenger car, the data does not support that assertion.
Euronews Green reports that the SUV may become a victim in Paris as the city will attempt to drive them out of business. The UK has gone after the Toyota Hilux cars because many people use them to drive off-road. Adfree Cities launched a successful campaign to ban the promotion of the Hilux across the UK due to its negative impact on nature.
All the things we could have done but never did.
Reuters writes on the campaign to drive the SUV out of Paris with heavy parking fees. In London and Paris, SUVs tend to be owned by the wealthy outside the city center.
PARIS — Paris aims to drive large sports utility vehicles (SUVs) out of its center by hiking parking fees for heavy cars in the French capital, and it plans a citizens' vote on the proposal early next year.
After banning rental scooters in September in the wake of a citizen's vote, Paris will hold a local referendum on Feb. 4 about "the place of SUVs in the capital."
Since SUVs can be hard to distinguish from other models, City Hall wants to introduce higher parking fees for thermal engine cars weighing over 1.6 tonnes (3,527 pounds) and for electric vehicles over two tonnes (4,409 pounds). To determine a car's weight, scanners will read its license plate, which links to its model and weight.
Damien Carrington writes in The Guardian:
The continued global rise in sales of SUVs pushed their climate-heating emissions to almost 1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.
The 330m sport utility vehicles on the roads produced emissions equivalent to the combined national emissions of the UK and Germany last year. If SUVs were a country, they would rank as the sixth most polluting in the world.
Climate campaigners are increasingly concerned about the impact of SUVs. The activist group Tyre Extinguishers said it had deflated the tyres of hundreds of SUVs in Europe on Monday nightin the run-up to the first anniversary of its campaign.
The vehicles are larger and heavier than regular cars and use on average 20% more fuel. The increased number of SUVs in 2022 were responsible for a third of the increase in global oil demand.
The International Energy Agency (IEA writes):
Global SUV sales also increased despite supply chain obstacles and rising inflation, growing by around 3% between 2021 and 2022. In 2022, SUVs accounted for around 46% of global car sales, with noticeable growth coming in the United States, India and Europe. And an increasing number of SUVs were electric, accounting for around 16% of total SUV sales in 2022, above the average overall market share for EVs. For the first time ever, electric SUVs last year accounted for over half of global electric car sales. Over 400 electric car models were available on the global market in 2022, of which around 55% were SUVs; up from around 40% four years ago.
The shift towards heavier and less fuel-efficient conventional vehicles increases growth in both oil demand and CO2 emissions. Between 2021 and 2022, oil use in conventional cars, excluding SUVs, remained roughly the same, but the oil consumption of SUVs globally increased by 500 000 barrels per day, accounting for one-third of the total growth in oil demand. On average, SUVs consume around 20% more oil than an average medium-size non-SUV car. The combustion-related CO2 emissions of SUVs increased by nearly 70 million tonnes in 2022. Altogether, the 330 million SUVs on the road today emit nearly 1 billion tonnes of CO2.
The Tyre Extinguishers arrived in the United States in 2022. New York was their first disruptive and successful effort against the gas guzzlers.
Parody ads on billboards and at Bus Stops are also the target of European climate activists. The ads are quite good, but as they are Web files, I can’t share any of them here. See for yourself.