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Electric cars are more polluting than the classic ones, announces part of the Romanian press, citing a study that compares engine and tire emissions.
Reducing emissions of harmful particles, a priority on the EU agenda
NEWS: “Electric cars release more toxic emissions than petrol vehicles and are worse for the environment, says a study cited by the Daily Mail. The study, which was published in 2022 but started circulating again after it was cited in a WSJ op-ed, found that brakes and tires release 1,850 times more particulate matter than modern tailpipes which have filters that reduce emissions. Electric vehicles have been found to be 30% heavier on average than petrol vehicles, causing brakes and tire treads to wear faster than standard cars and release small, often toxic particles into the atmosphere.”
NARRATIVE: Electric cars are thousands of times more polluting than classic cars.
CONTEXT: The planet is facing an accelerated increase in air quality problems, which is causing both concern and increasing focus on finding viable solutions to combat this trend. A global air quality report published recently, based on data from more than 30,000 monitoring stations in 134 countries, regions and territories of the world, shows that 124 of them exceeded the safe level of PM 2.5 (fine particles), according to the World Health Organization standards. These microscopic particles, less than 2.5 microns in diameter, can be inhaled deep into the lungs and even reach the bloodstream.
Other studies show that the transport sector is responsible for almost a quarter of the global emissions of toxic substances. In Romania, for example, the share of noxious gases released by motor vehicles is even twice as high; In Bucharest, road traffic generates almost half of the amount of pollutants present in the atmosphere, according to a 2020 report by the National Institute of Public Health. The toxic gases in the air we breathe may cause various lung and heart diseases (asthma, lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, disorders of the gastrointestinal system, ischemic cardiomyopathy, obstructive bronchopneumopathy, strokes, mental and neurological diseases, diabetes, etc.), which cause the death of tens of thousands of people annually.
In this context, several states and international bodies are looking to adopt some minimum vehicle quality standards that will ultimately lead to cleaner and safer car fleets. One of them is the European Union, which has set out to turn Europe into the first "climate neutral" continent, which means that, from that moment on, it will no longer contribute to increasing the amount of greenhouse gases existing in atmosphere. Thus, all 27 member states have committed to making efforts to achieve this goal by 2050, and one of the action points of this plan targets the motor vehicle manufacturing industry. A year ago, the European Parliament approved a set of CO2 emission reduction targets for new cars and light commercial vehicles, in line with the Union's climate goals. Thus, as of 2035, all EU member states will transition to an exclusive production of electric cars.
As a result, several voices from the area of climate denial have started to promote, on various channels, the theory that electric cars are much more polluting and more dangerous for the environment than those based on fossil fuels. It fits into the metanarrative which claims that behind the fight against climate change there are, in fact, hidden goals of the world occult, which aims to enslave the planet's population. Over time, Veridica has debunked several such fake news, like those stating that eco-dictatorship will push humanity towards a feudal social system , or that people will have to pay in order to be able to breathe. These narratives seek to induce and amplify the fear that the fight against climate change will impoverish the population, who will not be able to afford the costs of producing "green" energy; Behind the promotion of this type of speech are economic interests (private or state) from the area of businesses with polluting activities.
There is also the fear that a strong campaign to combat the effects of global warming led by governments could disregard people's economic freedoms and the state would become too powerful in relation to civil society. In recent years, the theme has been also used by the Russian propaganda, with the aim of diverting the public opinion’s attention from the invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin’s expansionist policies, but also because the Russian economy depends on the export of fossil fuels, the burning of which is the main factor contributing to pollution and global warming.
PURPOSE: To undermine the population's trust in the authorities, to promote an anti-Western and anti-European discourse, to trigger and amplify social tensions.
Fact: the quoted study compared engine emissions with tire emissions, not classical engines with electric engines
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: The quoted article is not a scientific study, published in a specialist journal, but an analysis carried out by Emissions Analytics, an independent research group on emissions generated by various means of transport, based in Oxford, Great Britain. The material published in May 2022 does not make a comparison between the emissions of electric cars and those that run on fossil fuels, but analyzes the differences between the amount of polluting substances generated by the combustion of fuels and that released into the atmosphere by tire wear. Moreover, this is evident from the very title of the article - "Pollution from tire wear is 1,850 times worse than exhaust emissions".
On several occasions, the CEO of Emissions Analytics, Nick Molden, has told the press and social media that the results and conclusions of the research in question were deeply distorted by some people and publications. Yes, it is true that the wear of the tires generates a larger amount of particles than those released through the exhaust pipe (particles also called "emissions"), but this does not include carbon dioxide. Molden stated that although, due to weight, electric vehicles tend to increase the emissions of hazardous particles from tires by about 25%, they reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 50%, making them much more efficient from this point of view than internal combustion vehicles.
Moreover, fossil fuel vehicles are also a growing contributor to tire pollution given the steady increase in heavy SUV sales and the large amount of heavy utility vehicles in use. The solution would be, therefore, to identify solutions to reduce the number of harmful particles emitted by tires, regardless of the nature of the car they equip.
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