Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Transport
Trauma
Reinventing the wheel
The toughest decarbonization challenge lies in the transport sec-
tor. Transport is almost totally dependent (95 percent) on oil. This
reliance on just one kind of fossil fuel means there is an inherent
energy-security argument, as well as a climate-change argument,
for saving on oil use in transport. But so far rail, whose passenger
load is minimal on a global scale, is the only transport mode for
which an alternative fuel - electricity - has been found. Around a
quarter of the world's rail network is said to be electrified.
Change in the rest of the transport sector could be traumatic. To explain
why, it is worth reflecting for a moment on the general nature of energy. It
is a derived demand - we don't eat, drink, sit on or wear coal, gas, oil, elec-
tricity in their raw state. It is the energy services they provide - heating,
cooling, cooking or locomotion - that we require. As consumers, we are
essentially indifferent to the energy form that delivers the service. Most
of the time, the form it takes is electricity, and most of us just think of
electricity as something that comes out of the wall, with little concern for
how it has been generated. We might prefer our electricity to be generated
renewably with a wind turbine or a solar source, rather than in a nuclear
reactor or by a coal-powered steam turbine. But all these sources produce
the electrons, and as far as the stationary energy services of heating, cool-
ing and cooking are concerned, one electron is as good as another.
Locomotion, however, is different. We all know how tightly all modern
transport (bar rail) is locked into oil, and very many of us fear that a move
away from oil might rob us of our mobility. We would not be indifferent
to this. People around the world have become accustomed to the percep-
tion of freedom that mass-produced cars and mass air-travel has brought
