A piece of news that will go down in capitalism history this week went unnoticed in the Brazilian press. The European Parliament has approved the end of sales of vehicles with internal combustion engines from 2035. The decision is based on several reasons. Cars, the main emitters of polluting gases, have become the new cigarette for health professionals.
With a 55 percent increase in the number of global air pollutionrelated deaths since 2000, the car now kills more from air pollution than road accidents. Contrary to the more pessimistic analyzes that predicted stagnation in the fight against global warming after the Ukraine war, European technocrats saw climate regulation as a weapon of acceleration
the great energy divergence between Europe and Asia.
For the auto industry, the European decision marks the end of the hegemony begun with the Ford T engine, the early 20’s engines and Lombardia, a parts and components hub.
Cars were the basis of the export model from Europe to Asia, held in check by the health and geopolitical crisis itself. In the United States, new captains of industry like Elon Musk, who combines libertarian speeches with government subsidies, are transforming the home consumer market, with electric vehicle sales doubling in 20202022.
It would be naïve to think that the emergence of more sustainable alternative models would not repeat the extractive patterns of the past. If Musk’s Tesla has accomplished the unprecedented feat of shaking secular interest groups, it is also developing at the expense of what geographers call the “sacrificed regions” of mineral exploration in Africa and Oceania.
In the worst of worlds, the electric revolution will only exacerbate climate inequality: First World citizens will live in cleaner, quieter cities, while we continue to serve as the staging ground for an outdated and damaging transportation model for decades to come.
In order to prevent this fate, the effects of this global change must be discussed in the gubernatorial elections in São Paulo, whose economy is closely linked to automobile production. If there is a consensus in the literature, it is that regions with greater historical experience are more likely to lead new innovation and technology movements. But even in avantgarde regions like São Paulo, modernization is a choice, not a destination.
The programmatic debate in the state took a new step forward at an event this Saturday (11), with the handover of the network’s program to Fernando Haddad’s (PT) campaign. The current view of the network’s staff on the primitive discourses of the established sectors is impressive. Far removed from the clichés of the last century, the energy and industrial transition can no longer be thought of without environmentalists.
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