Home About Climate Climate Science Mitigation The Energy sector Transport Land use Economy What Norway can do Links

Egil Støren's Web pages

about Climate change and Global warming

Transport

In 2010, 14% of global emissions were related to transport (see Greenhouse Gas Emissions). This amounts to 6.86 gigatonnes CO₂ equivalents. In 2016, this had increased to 7.866 gigatonnes [L123]. The following figure, taken from [L71], shows the evolution of emissions from 1970 to 2010. The figure does not include indirect emissions from the production of fuel, cars and infrastructure. Road transport is clearly the dominant source of emissions.

Total emissions from cars have increased, although emissions from each individual car have shown a declining trend, especially in the richer part of the world. The automotive industry is developing ever better car models in terms of emissions, and this is a trend that seems to be continuing. In addition, the proportion of electric cars will gradually increase, although this share is currently only about 1%. The figure below (from [L71]) shows how emissions per kilometre have decreased in some parts of the world:

The figure is based on an EU standard from 1997 for testing new cars (NEDC [L73]). This standard has been criticised since it does not expose the car to a realistic driving pattern. The car industry has gradually learned to design cars which give good results in testing, but which emit much more CO₂ in realistic driving [L74].

The transport sector is also an important source of emissions for soot (Black Carbon) which contributes to global warming. See Aerosols.

It therefore makes more sense to invest in cars that do not emit CO₂ or other combustion products at all, such as battery-powered electric cars. Although these cars indirectly emit CO₂ by using electricity that possibly is produced by, for example, a coal-fired power plant, they are still a better alternative than cars based on fossil fuels. If you include the emissions from the power plant, electric cars will emit 40% less CO₂ than petrol-powered cars [L75]. In countries like Sweden and France with power production largely based on renewable and nuclear power, life cycle emissions from electric cars are 70% lower than for fossil fuel cars [L139]. As power production shifts to emission-free production, the benefits of electric cars will be even clearer.

Currently, the price of electric cars is somewhat higher than that of petrol and diesel cars, but this will change over time. If fuel costs are taken into account, electric cars are already competitive in some markets, and within some years, the purchase price will also be at the same level as fossil fuel cars [L76]. But this development has not gone unaided. Tax benefits related to the purchase and use of electric cars, such as Norway, the Netherlands and many States in the United States have introduced, have been an important stimulus to the market for electric cars. Such benefits should be continued for a few more years to ensure the phasing out of fossil fuel cars.

Latest update: 2021-07-30