In this day and age, environmental issues have always been an imperative question. It is believed by some that raising fuel price is the optimal path to answer such problems. While it is true to some extent that this solution is undeniably beneficial, I believe that there are more effective ways to thoroughly improve the ecological system.
It is understandable why some subscribe to the idea that environmental problems can be alleviated by increasing the cost of fuels. The main rationale of this argument lies in the fact that the commuting volume can be decreased as a result of increasing fuel cost, leading to a significant reduce in harmful emission from private vehicles. Ho Chi Minh city is a case in point. There is an ongoing trend towards people living in suburb areas to use public transports in daily commute, not only helping employees cut down on travelling expense but also avoiding them from congestion in such a big city.
However, this viewpoint overlooks the fact that transport only accounts for around one-quarter of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy. Instead, the largest contributor to global emissions is electricity and heat, followed by agriculture and manufacturing as well as construction. In addition to this, boosting the cost of fuel can add to affluent cost in logistic, actually being tantamount to indiscriminately increasing the cost of other products.
From my perspective, there are more immersive and direct methods of solving environmental issues. One such approach is clean energy sources. Promoting the use of renewable resources such as wind, nuclear, and solar are virtually possible at dealing with pollution, given that those types of energy are less finite and pollution-free, extensively reduce the amount of carbon footprint people leaving on each individual. Such energy sources are more environmentally friendly compared to the notion of getting the fuel cost higher. This can be seen in Ninh Thuan province, where the idea of emphasizing on wind farms and solar panels is gaining traction, making renewable energy more available to average residents . In this way, the dependence on fossil fuels will be reduced without creating classist system that punishes the less affluent.
In a nutshell, while increasing the cost of fuel can alleviate environmental issues, it is far from the ultimate goal.