Almost 295 billion kilograms of carbon emissions – the equivalent to planting a forest larger than Belgium – will be avoided due to the predicted uptake in electric vehicles in Europe between 2020 and 2030, new data from Uswitch reveals.
Their study ultimately forecasts the increase in EV sales over the next decade. This was then used to determine how much CO2 emissions will be avoided from driving these EVs instead of petrol vehicles within this timeframe. The estimated amount of carbon saved was then used to calculate how the uptake in EVs across Europe could prevent other climate-affecting factors, such as rising sea levels and rising temperatures.
The results:
|
Year |
Predicted number of EVs in Europe |
Predicted cut in rising sea levels (mm) |
Predicted cut in rising temperatures (ºC) |
Total predicted carbon saved (KGs) |
|
2020 |
3,159,807 |
0.030 |
0.000006 |
3,981,578,746 |
|
2021 |
4,291,854 |
0.036 |
0.000007 |
4,835,763,056 |
|
2022 |
6,364,416 |
0.052 |
0.000010 |
6,995,837,602 |
|
2023 |
9,377,494 |
0.078 |
0.000016 |
10,424,757,327 |
|
2024 |
13,331,088 |
0.112 |
0.000023 |
15,085,476,644 |
|
2025 |
18,225,198 |
0.156 |
0.000031 |
20,940,949,969 |
|
2026 |
24,059,824 |
0.208 |
0.000042 |
27,954,131,715 |
|
2027 |
30,834,966 |
0.268 |
0.000054 |
36,084,545,480 |
|
2028 |
38,550,624 |
0.337 |
0.000068 |
45,301,088,075 |
|
2029 |
47,206,798 |
0.413 |
0.000083 |
55,564,083,652 |
|
2030 |
56,803,488 |
0.497 |
0.000100 |
66,836,485,395 |
|
TOTAL |
252,205,557 |
2.187 |
0.000441 |
294,004,697,667
|
Emissions saved from EVs in the next 10 years is the equivalent of planting a forest larger than Belgium
Between 2020 and 2030, uptake in both battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) across Europe is expected to increase by a staggering 1,697%. This means that within the 10-year timeframe, over 294 billion kilograms of CO2 is expected to be saved from being emitted from standard petrol cars. To put these figures into perspective, Uswitch calculated how many trees would need to be planted to offset these emissions.
The numbers show that the amount of carbon saved from Europe’s switch to EVs is equivalent to planting over 1 billion (1,225,019,574) trees. Planting these trees would further take up 30,625km2 of forest – an area which is 1.1% larger than the whole of Belgium, and a staggering 47.38% larger than Wales.
Carbon emissions saved from EV uptake in Europe will stop sea levels from rising 2.19mm
By preventing this staggering amount of carbon from being emitted through driving EVs instead of standard petrol cars, it is predicted to reduce rising sea levels by 2.19mm in total across the decade. Without this increased uptake in EV sales across Europe, sea levels would be expected to climb another 0.199mm a year on average – 5.5% of the current sea level rise rates of 3.6mm a year.
The 1,578% increase in the amount of carbon saved between 2020 and 2030 is also predicted to help prevent rising temperatures. Research has revealed that at 1.5 degrees Celsius warming, about 14% of Earth’s population will be exposed to severe heat waves at least once every five years. However, with the amount of carbon emissions that is predicted to be saved through Europe’s uptake in EVs – by 2030, this will have reduced rising temperatures by 0.00041 degrees in total – preventing further warming of the planet.