54
FORTUNE.COM // JANUARY 2020
I
N THE 2020s, we will
see the beginning
of the end of the in-
ternal combustion engine.
That is quite remarkable
because the entirety of our
economic growth over the
last 150 years has come on
the back of this technol-
ogy and the fossil fuels
that feed it. Over the past
few years we have been
investing heavily in electric
and hydrogen-powered
vehicles, and this is just go-
ing to accelerate exponen-
tially over the next decade.
Regulators at the city, state,
and national levels are be-
ginning to understand that
the internal combustion
engine is both a global and
locally polluting technol-
ogy. Our cities are heavily
polluted mostly because of
the burning of fossil fuels,
causing almost 7 million
deaths per year globally. In
addition, many—if not all—
car manufacturers realize
that the demand for low-
or no-emission vehicles is
increasing exponentially.
CHRISTIANA
FIGUERES
WE’LL WITNESS THE END OF THE INTERNAL
COMBUSTION ENGINE ERA
20 IDEAS THAT WILL SHAPE THE 2020sOUR ENVIRONMENT
Employees work
on the assembly
line for the
production of the
ID.3 electric car
at the Volkswagen
plant in Saxony,
Germany.