Structural change in the auto industry

Structural change in the auto industry.

In Sweden Volvo has stated it will lay off more than one thousand employees, both in the automobile and truck divisions. German manufacturers are also struggling.

In Norway the downturn in new car sales is more than 50 percent. The importers have ordered, and have received, far more cars than they can sell in today’s market. The industry will sell this years models at a discount well into the next year.

This is serious, but there are also some positive elements in what is happening. When we know that driving contributes six times more to global warming than air travel, it is not hard to see where the opportunity for reduction is greatest. At the same time we also know that the biggest polluter in the world are coal power plants.

There has been a lot of research on these factors. The latest numbers are from Jan Fuglestvedt and Terje Berntsen at the Cicero Center For International Climate and Environmental Research.

The auto industry goes hand in hand with lifestyle and way of life. It has been considered almost a human right to own a car with high consumption and have low fuel costs, especially in America.

That is why the auto industry will be a part of the solution to the climate crisis in the future, in the same way it has been a large part of the creation of the problem. Both nationally and internationally we have not been willing enough to place demands for more environmentally friendly solutions on this industry.

The situation now can lead to bankruptcy, or the government can step in with relief in some form. But what cannot happen is giving the industry help to continue as it used to. From now on the R&D departments of the major auto makers have to use their smarts and knowledge to develop other, more environmentally friendly solutions.

In one year the nations of the world will gather in Copenhagen to write the follow-up of today’s Kyoto Treaty. So far, automobile traffic has not been a part of this agreement. But with a new American administration in place, we can hope that America will put considerably more pressure on getting the necessary deals to cut the release gases that increase climate change. That can be done by taking car traffic into the Kyoto rules.

The situation of our world is urgent. Which is why a major restructuring of the auto industry does not have to be negative.