washington getting more people into electric vehicles needs to happen alongside a shift to more compact cities where fewer car journeys are needed if governments want to stave off the most dire effects of global warming researchers said on thursday curbing urban transport emissions is a narrow but critical piece in the broader fight against climate change as cities from paris to jakarta reorient their streets to promote public transit use and bicycle and walking paths if politicians think electrification is going to save the day and everybodys going to go out and buy an electric vehicle its just not going to work said heather thompson ceo of the institute for transportation and development policy the research looked at four scenarios for transport business as usual massive electrification of public and private vehicles by 2050 a major shift in cities to noncar transport and a high ev shift combination the ev shift scenario was the only one whose estimated 20202050 emissions were in line with targets of the 2015 paris agreement on climate change which aims to limit global temperature rise to well under 2 degrees celsius the key is minimizing the overall number of vehicles on the road and electrifying the rest said thompson whose nonprofit group developed and released the research in concert with the university of california davis rising emissions urban passenger transport represents about 10 of the worlds climatechanging emissions but those emissions have been increasing steadily as private vehicles become easier to acquire in emerging economies the study found researchers acknowledged that putting into place a largescale ev shift combination would require a vast global effort likening it to the construction of the us interstate highway system in the 1950s but the study catalogued examples of cities promoting effective land use and public transporation options that others could emulate mexico city for instance features both a viable public bikeshare system and policies that disincentivize or reduce parking availability in the us pacific northwest portland has pushed zoning laws encouraging highdensity development which makes walking to services easier and seattle has worked to ensure residents have close access to highfrequency bus routes the study pointed out that paris decreased car travel by almost 50 in 30 years by promoting other options while jakarta in 2004 opened a mass transit system that drew nearly a million daily riders prepandemic we have the solutions we have the technology we know which ones are more costeffective its really about political will thompson told the thomson reuters foundation more immediate tangible steps to promote clean transport like creating protected bike lanes and sidewalks and boosting rapid transit would serve people where they already live she noted these are things that cities can do its not about people moving its about bringing those better transportation options to people wherever they live she said roadblocks still even gradual changes to city design and zoning laws can generate massive political blowback as with