Fewer cars, more global justice

Global wie lokal betrachtet leiden vor allem jene Menschen unter den Folgen der Klimakatastrophe, die am wenigsten dazu beitragen. Die Mehrheit der Menschen, die stark von den Folgen der Erderhitzung betroffen sind, leben auf dem afrikanischen Kontinent, im südost- und südasiatischen Raum, im Pazifik und in Lateinamerika. Dort sind Klima- und Umweltkrisen keine in der Zukunft liegende Bedrohung, sondern vielfach bereits bittere Realität.Die Konsequenzen der Erderhitzung sind weitreichend. Während der Temperaturanstieg in einigen Regionen so drastisch sein wird, dass sie bereits in wenigen Jahrzehnten für Menschen als nicht mehr bewohnbar gelten, werden andere Orte aufgrund des steigenden Meeresspiegels gänzlich untergehen. Trotzdem werden Jahr für Jahr immer mehr Treibhausgase ausgestoßen. Für groß angelegte Bergbau-, Industrie- und Infrastrukturprojekte werden Ökosysteme und damit auch Lebensgrundlagen beschädigt oder zerstört.

The transport sector, which generates around one fifth of CO2 emissions globally and in Germany, is a major contributor to global warming. In Germany, the majority of these greenhouse gas emissions are due to cars with internal combustion engines. In addition, there is a high land consumption as well as the particulate matter and noise pollution in the transport sector.

Above all, however, the current automobile industry is based not only on the combustion of petroleum, but also on the extraction and further processing of numerous raw materials. Each car, for example, contains several hundred kilograms of aluminium and steel. These two metals make up by far the largest proportion of the volume of the so-called construction materials. Their production from the ores iron and bauxite is extremely energy-intensive. Global steel production from 1900 to 2015 accounted for an estimated nine percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions during this period. The aluminium sector is responsible for around two percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, the two metals also cause a significant proportion of CO2 emissions along the entire value chain of a car, namely about 60 percent.

At the same time, the extraction of ores – which are mainly imported into Germany from Brazil and Guinea – is often accompanied by serious human rights violations and environmental pollution. Production is often the cheapest where human rights, social and environmental standards are lowest.

The relevance of responsible raw material procurement by car companies has only received more attention in connection with the drivetrain turnaround. The massive increase in demand for metals such as lithium, cobalt, graphite and nickel as a result of electromobility has brought the human rights, social and environmental problems of mining these raw materials into focus. In the meantime, the Federal Government has also referred to the automotive industry as a ‘risk industry relevant to human rights’.

In the transport policy debate, the social, environmental and human rights costs of extracting raw materials for automobiles remain out of the question. With this study, we want to make a contribution to showing those outsourced and invisible costs. In chapter two, we give an overview of automobiles in Germany and take a look at the transport policy agenda of political leaders and industry actors before showing and presenting the effects of car traffic in Germany on climate, environment and health. We outline why, on the one hand, electric cars are the necessary alternative to the combustion engine despite the negative side effects and, on the other hand, forms of mobility beyond privately owned cars in particular must be promoted. In the third chapter, we examine which metallic raw materials are in cars and what consequences their mining is associated with in different states. We show that the procurement of raw materials by German industries is politically supported and point to legislative processes to regulate the human rights and environmental due diligence of companies. Following on from this, we present in chapter four policy recommendations for a globally just and sustainable mobility and raw materials transition in Germany and Europe.