None of us are experts about when the fossil fuels are going to go away from our lives. But according to many respectable researches, by 2050 to 2060, we are not going to have fossil fuels, that we can fill our equipment or passenger cars, said Kivanc Karayol, Market Director & Electromobility Champion, Volvo Group.

Mr Karayol was speaking at a panel discussion titled - SUSTAINABILITY TODAY: THEMES TO LOOK FOR IN 2023, during the Sustainability Middle East - Future of Sustainability Conference, held in Dubai on March 9, 2023.

Responding to a question posed by Moderator of the session, Karl W Feilder, Regional expert on biofuels, he said that Volvo Group like any other corporate entity is a profit generating company, profit for the organisation, its employees and stakeholders.

"But the main target is that we sincerely believe, we are not going to be making money from fossil fuels in the future. That's the reason why we need to be extremely proactive in investing our income in research and development."

"This will help us produce bio-diesel trucks. We can produce electric trucks, LNG and other alternative fuel-based vehicles at affordable prices," said Mr Karayol.

But is this feasible and commercially viable? The answer is no. The components of a vehicle using alternative fuels are not as affordable as compared to diesel engines, he added.

"Last year, we had manufactured more than 150,000 trucks and Volvo is always one of the big players, not just in the Middle East and Turkey, but across the world. Regardless, very little portion of this number of trucks actually has a net-zero carbon emission,” Mr Karayol added.

Sustainability is definitely a very complex subject and money is really important for achieving it. But we need to understand, if the world continues like this, we will lose our health and that of our next generation.