Both busses and trains have CO2 emissions, but we cannot electrify either of them. Can these be modelled in game, and have policies which help in their electrification? So that we can eliminate these sources of CO2?
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maybe this should all be tied into the increase of renewable energy. If electricity is generated though coal, then using electric buses is effectively the same or even worse than just burning gas.
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There is a big difference between burning gas in your engine and using electricity generated by coal.
First, you may get higher CO2 emisions, but you don’t get other kinds of polution, like particles, CO or NOx, near populated places.
Second, regulating the power that a thermic engine has to produce is highly ineficient, so changing the output, like you need in a vehicle, increase fuel consumption a lot.
Third, the eficiency of little engines tend to be less than that of bigger engines, to the point that charging an electric vehicle with a diesel generator is more eficient than using it on a diesel vehicle.
By last, when you have to brake, the energy gets transformed into heat en thermic engine vehicles, but in electric ones, around 50% of that energy gets transformed back into electricity.
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This is all true, though I was more thinking about the negative effects on the environment and human health from mining all the various minerals needed to completely electrify the transportation system. Perhaps switching to electric vehicles would slightly lessen CO2 emissions and leave health unchanged (until the electricity grid is electrified), while also increasing the rare earth crisis.
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It would help to reduce the impact of respiratory illness. Particulate pollution is particularly catastrophic on roads.
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True. You would basically be exporting the health effects to other countries where materials can be mined. Maybe this could affect foreign relations if measures are not taken?
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