Title: PUTTING THE BRAKES ON CLIMATE CHANGE: A POLICY REPORT ON ROAD TRANSPORT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Abstract: More affordable cars, rising incomes and a land use policy that has favoured out of town shopping centres and greenfield housing developments, have all led to a growing dependency on the car as a means of transport. Road vehicles currently account for 22 per cent of all UK carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the main greenhouse gas responsible for the human contribution to climate change. To date, the CO2 emissions from increases in road traffic have been largely offset by improvements in vehicle efficiency. But in future further fuel efficiency improvements are unlikely to keep pace with traffic growth. Our research suggests that road transport.s share of total UK CO2 emissions could rise to 29 per cent by 2020 overtaking the domestic, industry and service sectors. Transport is likely to be the only sector with rising emissions in the period to 2020, the large majority of which comes from road transport. If the Government's policies in other sectors prove successful, the increase in CO2 emissions from road transport will not be so great as to reverse the downward trend predicted for total UK emissions. But rising road transport CO2 emissions could, if not addressed, endanger the prospects of meeting the Government's 2010 target to cut CO2 emissions by 20 per cent compared to 1990 levels. After 2020, the continued increase in emissions from road transport could start to raise total UK CO2 emissions again and begin to erode the carbon savings anticipated from greater energy efficiency and renewable electricity use. Urgent action is therefore needed to reduce the growth in CO2 emissions from road transport.
Publication Year: 2003
Publication Date: 2003-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 9
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot