Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Reduction of Carbon Emissions of 51% by 2030: Discussion (Resumed)

Dr. Brian Caulfield:

It is a nice easy question on which to end. With regard to e-bikes, they should be part of those million vehicles. We do not specify they should be cars. The e-bikes should be in there and at a time, whenever it happens, e-scooters should potentially be in there. The Senator is 100% right about the minerals put into these cars. We are making our movement around our cities a little bit easier but at what cost? One of things I do in Trinity when I am teaching is a policy debate. One of them was on EVs. A bunch of students took that point of strip-mining lithium from developing countries, just so people in developed countries can get around a little bit easier and feel a little bit better about having a private vehicle to move around. How you do it is at an EU level, in that regulations are put in at an EU level to make sure this lithium and the other minerals are sourced ethically. That is the big question in all of this, in that we do not want to be turning around in ten year's time and looking at this in the same way as we looked at the diesel crisis and diesel gate. It is a fantastic question.

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