December 3, 2015 – Paris, France – Thirteen North American and European governments announced today that they will strive to make all new passenger vehicles in their jurisdictions zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) by no later than 2050. Achieving this will accelerate the global transition to ZEVs and could reduce transportation sector climate impacts by more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year by 2050, lowering global vehicle emissions by about 40 percent.
The governments, which are participants in the International ZEV Alliance, include the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway in Europe; California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont in the United States; and Québec in Canada. The International ZEV Alliance made this announcement during COP21 to highlight ZEVs as a key strategy to solving the climate crisis and to encourage further investments in ZEV technologies. ZEVs in use today include battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles.
Members of the International ZEV Alliance are committed to accelerating the global transition to ZEVs. Large-scale adoption of electric-drive vehicles, in concert with clean energy deployment, is essential for limiting climate change impacts such as sea level rise and increased in extreme weather, ending oil dependence, improving air quality, and growing the low-carbon economy. ZEVs can also offer consumers a multitude of other benefits such as improved performance, and lower fueling and maintenance costs.
ZEV Alliance participants represent about half of the electric vehicles sales worldwide. “These governments are leading the way when it comes to early adoption of electric vehicles by offering a mix of financial and non-financial incentives, vehicle policy, consumer awareness and outreach, and the installation of a charging infrastructure,” said Nic Lutsey, Program Director of the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), which serves as Secretariat to the International ZEV Alliance. Yesterday the ICCT released a working paper, “Global Climate Change Mitigation Potential from a Transition to Electric Vehicles,” that quantifies the greenhouse gas benefits of increasing ZEV adoption. The paper is at the ZEV Alliance website.
In addition to supporting ZEV adoption with innovative policies and investments within their own jurisdictions, members of the International ZEV Alliance are collaborating to expand the global ZEV market and encouraging other jurisdictions to establish ambitious ZEV targets and policies to promote electric drive vehicles.
For more information on the International ZEV Alliance, visit the website.
Member’s view on the importance of transitioning to ZEVs
“The UK is at the forefront of international efforts to promote the benefits of cleaner motoring and we are proud to work with our partners to accelerate this motoring revolution.
“Electric cars are greener and cheaper to run and we are making them more affordable. The UK government has committed to spend more than £600 million between 2015 and 2020 to support the uptake and manufacturing of ultra-low emission vehicles in the UK.
“Our global leadership means 1 in 4 of all European electric vehicles are built here and the UK is on track for almost every car and van to be a zero emission vehicle by 2050.”