Guillaume's Story

"After an introductory period of a week during which I was presented with the office’s projects and daily work, I started to focus specifically on electric vehicles policy in China. In late September, the Chinese government announced that starting 2025, 20% of all new car sales would have to be made of electric vehicles, thereby setting the most aggressive target worldwide for electric vehicles adoption. With the help of UNIDO program managers working on the topic, I was able to develop an understanding of EV policy in China and start thinking about a research question that I wanted to tackle. As air pollution is notoriously high in Chinese cities, it seems like more electric vehicles and less traditional cars on the roads would mean fewer emissions and cleaner air. However, since about 70% of Chinese electricity is produced out of coal, the increase in electric demand due to electric vehicles is likely to cause an increase in pollutants’ emissions from power plants, potentially outweighing the health benefits of lowering on-road emissions. That was the question I worked on. "