Design and Development of the Medical Fuel Cell Vehicle—The Technology Links Mitigation and Adaptation in Climate Change

The frequent occurrences of the meteorological disasters are one of the main reasons of the current global progress in the climate change countermeasures by the international community. Nowadays, in the climate change countermeasures, adaptation and mitigation are recognized as an inseparable pair and the collaboration, links, and integration between adaptation and mitigation efforts are encouraged. While adaptation and mitigation are widely recognized as an inseparable effort, vehicles are commonly recognized only as a main target of mitigation. However, recently, the environmentally friendly vehicles such as hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles equip external power supply functions that can be utilized in disaster response. This means that environmentally friendly vehicles not only assist in mitigation efforts but also one of the tools to build up the resilient societies against weather and water related disasters. Therefore, this study discusses the application of the Medical Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle as a new common solution for the climate change mitigation and adaptation in medical services and disaster response. The practical field tests of the Medical Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle were conducted to point out that the widespread uses of the fuel cell electric vehicles contribute to mitigation by its unique feature of zero emission and adaptation by the other feature of the external power supply function that can be used as movable generators in emergencies.