WASHINGTON (November 14, 2023) – Global efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C are failing across the board, with recent progress made on every indicator — except electric passenger car sales — lagging significantly behind the pace and scale that is necessary to address the climate crisis, according to the State of Climate Action 2023 report.
The report doesn’t mention e-bikes, but while I admit I’m not super well versed in the subject, I’m guessing the industry & scientific community is still struggling to figure out how e-bike sales impact global emissions. Trading a bike mile traveled, or walked mile for an e-bike mile doesn’t do much, but every VMT replaced by an e-bike is a big win.
While, as others have pointed out, EVs are the smallest possible step forward, the correlation with emissions is at least very straightforward and well studied.
It takes time to show a net decrease in VMT from e-bikes, and more impostantly that the effect is long-lasting