Electric cars won't save the planet without a clean energy overhaul - they could increase pollution

Dr Parakram Pyakurel discusses how electric vehicles are still contributing to the continued consumption of fossil fuels.

Several countries - including France, Norway and the UK - have plans to phase out cars powered by fossil fuel before 2050, to reduce air pollution and fight climate change. The idea is to replace all conventional vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs). But this is unlikely to help the environment, as long as EVs are charged using electricity generated from the same old dirty fossil fuels.

Global electricity consumption from EVs is estimated to grow to 1,800TWh by 2040 - that's roughly five times the current annual electricity of of the UK. Using data from the UK as a benchmark, this would amount to an extra 510 megatonnes of carbon emissions coming from the electricity sector worldwide. But this massive impact could be drastically reduced if electricity is generated entirely from renewable energy sources, instead of fossil fuels.

Read Dr Parakram Pyakurel's article in full on The Conversation