United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, through his initiative on Sustainable Energy for All, is challenging governments and private companies to use traditional energy resources more efficiently and expand the use of renewable energy sources.
I’ve agreed to help find solutions because this issue is critical to the future of my industry – auto making. About 25% of global oil output is used to fuel cars and light trucks. That’s about 1 billion tons of petrol a year. Meanwhile, the planet’s demographics and energy needs are shifting dramatically. In my lifetime, the world’s population has grown from 2.7 billion to more than 7 billion people. In 1999, consumers in China bought 600,000 vehicles. Last year, Chinese consumers bought more than 17 million vehicles.
For millions of consumers joining the middle class across the developing world, a car is the first thing they want to buy. In the United States, there are about 800 cars per 1,000 people; across Europe, it’s an average of 500 vehicles per 1,000 people. This contrasts with China, where there are only 50 vehicles per 1,000 people, and India, where it’s 15.
People living in these countries – and other emerging markets that will drive global economic growth in the decades ahead –want the same level of personal mobility consumers enjoy in advanced economies today.
