January 2024

January 2024
31
the time. From thence, advertising was called
in to do what advertising does – to create an
appetite for ‘goods’ (or ‘bads’?) we didn’t know
we needed. So, as the certainties of our world
seem to be breaking down and our politicians
seem unable to deliver the safety and
security we are looking for, how appealing
are the images of command and control
over rugged nature, spectacular and remote,
or the lure of well-apportioned protective
spaces within.
But, of course, we feel we can see through
the adverts. Fact is, it feels a safer and better
ride from higher up there at the wheel. There’s
more room for all the kids and kit. Much easier
as a family – you don’t have to keep bending
down with that dreadful battle to get the
kids into the car seats. My mother, who has
mobility problems, finds it much easier to
get in and out. There will be many and varied
personal reasons why an SUV feels better than
the car we had before. And in this, we are
bang on trend. The SUV share of new car sales
in Europe has risen from 7% in 2006 to over a
half of sales by the beginning of 2023.
And yet, not only is there reason to doubt
the real increase in safety and protection
SUVs deliver (certainly for the
pedestrians and other road users
with whom they may collide,
and also for the drivers and
passengers of SUVs themselves),
the weight of their carbon cost is
undeniably heavy.
At a time when it is critical for
our children and grandchildren
that we start to eradicate
fossil fuels from our diet, the
global oil consumption of SUVs
increased by 500,000 barrels
a day between 2021 and 2022,
(for non-SUV cars there was
little change) and the CO2 emissions from
driving them increased by nearly 70m tonnes.
For a sense of how outsized the SUV impact
has become, we could try and take in the
International Energy Agency’s calculation in
2021, that if the world’s SUVs constituted an
individual country, it would rank sixth in the
world for absolute emissions!
Though the sale of electric SUVs is on the
rise, switching only the energy source
whilst keeping the design is unlikely to be
compatible with the needs of our climate.
These energy-hungry vehicles require
significantly bigger batteries than average
electric cars, so adding to pressure on battery
supply chains and the critical minerals needed
to make them. It seems clear that costs of
what have come to be our treasured car
comforts are well beyond the capacity of the
planet on which we all can live.
In street surveys undertaken by Wanstead
Climate Action and at the last Wanstead
Festival, people were asked to rate how
concerned they were about the climate
crisis on a five-point scale, from ‘not worried’
to ‘terrified’. The overwhelming majority
clustered around ‘seriously concerned’ to
‘terrified’. Though taking into account those
who stopped to take the survey are likely to
be those tending to be concerned, it could be
taken as an indication there is a community in
Wanstead for whom the climate emergency is
a pressing reality. With SUV ownership being
such a significant contributor to hastening
climate breakdown, is this an area in which
we can review our lifestyle choices so that
Wanstead can become greener for us all?
A friend of mine
drew my attention
to the world’s first
advertisement for
the car in 1898. It
urged ‘dispense
with a horse’. As
we begin 2024
in Wanstead,
is it possible to
contemplate it as a
year where we might
now ‘dispense with
the SUV’?
To pursue this conversation, email
wansteadclimateaction@gmail.com
For more information on Wanstead
Climate Action, visit wnstd.com/climate
Please mention the Wanstead Village Directory when responding to adverts