On the occasion of the opening of the Frankfurt motor show on Tuesday 10 September, Greenpeace published a report denouncing the air pollution caused by large SUVs. On this occasion, about twenty militants inflated in the back of a 4X4 a giant black balloon with the inscription "CO2". "A transport revolution without the climate killers" could be read on posters.
"In total, the 12 manufacturers that were screened for this report are responsible for 4.8 gigatonnes of carbon emissions," said Greenpeace in a statement released Tuesday morning. Nearly one-tenth of global greenhouse gas emissions: according to a Greenpeace study, the 2018 carbon footprint of the automotive industry.
See also: Automobile: towards a global crisis of the sector?
"We ask this industry to be responsible to History"
"The automotive industry still has not understood the climate crisis, and instead of celebrating fuel-hungry SUVs here, manufacturers have to put an end to these urban tanks and shut down the combustion engines," he said. AFP Benjamin Stephan, activist of the NGO.
The biggest manufacturers are logically the biggest polluters: Volkswagen comes first, ahead of Renault-Nissan, Toyota, General Motors and Hyundai-Kia. Together they represent 55% of the sector's carbon emissions, according to Greenpeace. "We are asking this industry to change dramatically, or to be accountable to history," says the NGO.
The automotive industry, under pressure from European regulators, has begun a shift towards electric mobility, visible in Frankfurt, with a large number of new electric or hybrid (gasoline-electric) models. Significant amounts are also invested to improve the consumption of heat engines.
But, in the eyes of Greenpeace, "improving the efficiency of gasoline and hybrid vehicles are no longer sufficient solutions to the climate crisis.On the contrary, they delay the necessary fundamental changes, and the current sales growth SUV (4x4 urban, Ed) is an additional threat to our climate ".
With AFP