Germany is in a shock. Rivers and streams have moved at a terrifying rate, milled through cities and villages and destroyed landscapes to complete unrecognizability. Pictures that we only know from far away, from Bangladesh or the Philippines, but not right in front of our own doorstep.
By Solveig Grewe-Germany
What does that show us? The loss of well over a hundred life’s, desperate relatives and destroyed livehoods are an expensive price for years of ignorance.
Like prayers, scientists pointed out again and again the dangers of the global warming indicated the cause of extreme weather such as heavy rain and drought in these latitudes.
Politics, in turn, play down the consequences of man-made climate change and are playing on time as well. However, if the world community wants to achieve its ambitious temperature targets, the important thing now is a significantly reduction of climate-damaging CO2 emissions.
Climate change has been an unpopular topic for the automotive industry for a long time. Traffic, or just the car, was considered as the prime suspect for growing CO2 emissions and its consequences. Meanwhile the direction of the automobile manufacturers is clear: Their reflexive rejection, more to do for clean cars, gives way to the effort to make adequate solutions and offers.
The manufacturers are working under increasing pressure of even stricter exhaust limits and thus, redefine their future car portfolio. Denounced as a scapegoat, the combustion engine threatens to end even faster than on political instructions planned.
Fully electric cars, hydrogen and synthetic fuels are in a competition. So something is moving. The direction is sustainable and correct. However, a few electric cars and the occasional use of biofuels are not enough for climate-friendly mobility. The creation of a better infrastructure is as important as a clean value chain and a clean creation of electricity generation. An e-car delivers only a contribution to climate protection when it is built and used with energy from renewable sources.
The 50-member jury of «Women’s World Car of the Year» (WWCOTY), the only automobile award in the world given exclusively by women, increasingly perceives it as its duty to understand topics of environmental compatibility of particular relevance. We owe this to our earth and our children.