{"title":"《失乐园》吗?绿色科技的红色右手","authors":"Simon Sneddon","doi":"10.4337/jhre.2023.02.03","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article addresses issues of climate and environmental injustice through the lens of electric vehicle (EV) usage. The current market for batteries relies very heavily on Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries, as they provide ‘high efficiency and low cost’. In 2020, BloombergNEF forecast that by 2040, 58 per cent of global passenger vehicles sales would be EVs, with demand for batteries rising commensurately. Between 2010 and 2021, the average unit price for EV batteries fell from $1200 to $132 per kW/h. The article considers the environmental impacts of EVs and assesses the extent to which impacts on local communities are reflected accurately in calculations of the benefits of EV technology. It concludes that whilst the carbon emissions and impact on the climate of using EVs is significantly lower than for using petrol or diesel vehicles, the current cost of the technology simply does not reflect the disproportionate impact on the populations living near the extraction sites for the minerals needed in EV batteries.","PeriodicalId":43831,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Rights and the Environment","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Paradise lost? The red right hand of green technology\",\"authors\":\"Simon Sneddon\",\"doi\":\"10.4337/jhre.2023.02.03\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"This article addresses issues of climate and environmental injustice through the lens of electric vehicle (EV) usage. The current market for batteries relies very heavily on Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries, as they provide ‘high efficiency and low cost’. In 2020, BloombergNEF forecast that by 2040, 58 per cent of global passenger vehicles sales would be EVs, with demand for batteries rising commensurately. Between 2010 and 2021, the average unit price for EV batteries fell from $1200 to $132 per kW/h. The article considers the environmental impacts of EVs and assesses the extent to which impacts on local communities are reflected accurately in calculations of the benefits of EV technology. It concludes that whilst the carbon emissions and impact on the climate of using EVs is significantly lower than for using petrol or diesel vehicles, the current cost of the technology simply does not reflect the disproportionate impact on the populations living near the extraction sites for the minerals needed in EV batteries.\",\"PeriodicalId\":43831,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Journal of Human Rights and the Environment\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":3.0000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-09-22\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Journal of Human Rights and the Environment\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.4337/jhre.2023.02.03\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q2\",\"JCRName\":\"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Human Rights and the Environment","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4337/jhre.2023.02.03","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
Paradise lost? The red right hand of green technology
This article addresses issues of climate and environmental injustice through the lens of electric vehicle (EV) usage. The current market for batteries relies very heavily on Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries, as they provide ‘high efficiency and low cost’. In 2020, BloombergNEF forecast that by 2040, 58 per cent of global passenger vehicles sales would be EVs, with demand for batteries rising commensurately. Between 2010 and 2021, the average unit price for EV batteries fell from $1200 to $132 per kW/h. The article considers the environmental impacts of EVs and assesses the extent to which impacts on local communities are reflected accurately in calculations of the benefits of EV technology. It concludes that whilst the carbon emissions and impact on the climate of using EVs is significantly lower than for using petrol or diesel vehicles, the current cost of the technology simply does not reflect the disproportionate impact on the populations living near the extraction sites for the minerals needed in EV batteries.
期刊介绍:
The relationship between human rights and the environment is fascinating, uneasy and increasingly urgent. This international journal provides a strategic academic forum for an extended interdisciplinary and multi-layered conversation that explores emergent possibilities, existing tensions, and multiple implications of entanglements between human and non-human forms of liveliness. We invite critical engagements on these themes, especially as refracted through human rights and environmental law, politics, policy-making and community level activisms.