The Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, for example, has embraced the idea of a minute city, where all the services people need — including their workplaces — are situated in close proximity to where they live. It would require a drastic redesign of Paris city centre, but the benefits would be huge. Of course, there are some journeys that will always be tricky to do by public transport, bike or foot. For many living in rural areas, for instance, the car is often the only realistic transport option.
Similarly, for elderly people or those with a disability, cars may be the only feasible means of transport. For those continuing to use a car, choosing the most fuel-efficient model available can make a big difference. Transport emissions are still growing globally because of the growing appetite for SUVs over smaller vehicles, a trend which risks cancelling out the benefits switching to electric cars. According to the International Energy Agency, this demand for larger cars was the second largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions between and Electric cars are the lowest carbon — they emit around a third of the CO2 of a petrol car in the UK, although this figure will vary from country to country depending on how much fossil fuels are still used to produce electricity.
The car stock on the roads will also alter this — cars on the roads in the US are generally larger and less efficient than those in Europe, for example. Car sharing initiatives, which allow you to rent a car without owning one, are increasingly becoming an option for those living in cities and towns.
Studies have shown these have the ability to significantly reduce the number of cars on the roads. For some, a sensible-seeming solution would be to turn to taxis and ride hailing through apps such as Uber and Lyft. But these may be higher carbon emitters than you realise.
But pooling rides, choosing rides in electric vehicles, or using ride hailing to connect with public transport all produce less emissions than a private car, the report found. And ride hailing will also reduce the need for on-street parking — freeing up more space in dense cities.
Due to "deadheading" — journeys made without passengers — ride hailing services often emit more carbon than many alternatives Credit: Union of Concerned Scientists. Until schemes like this become more mainstream, however, car-pooling remains one of the main options for reducing your individual emissions of using a car.
One last way you may be inadvertently leading to transport emissions and congestion in your area is your online shopping habits. The huge growth in internet shopping has caused the number of vans to skyrocket in many cities due to home deliveries.
But the change in greenhouse gas emission impacts from home deliveries is still uncertain, says Susan Shaheen, co-director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California.
In either case, one way to reduce home delivery emissions is for packages to arrive using postal services, which typically serve a location once a day, says Shaheen. You could also get parcels delivered to your local post office, avoid one-day deliveries and use companies that deliver using low carbon transport. For many of us, taking action to reduce the emissions from your daily transport can be tricky on an individual level, but even just cutting out one or two journeys could make a different while pushing those in charge to make it easier for us to switch to greener vehicles.
For most BBC Future readers, the question of whether climate change is happening is no longer something that needs to be asked. Diesel vehicles emit higher levels of NOx and particulates than new petrol vehicles. They generally have lower CO 2 exhaust emissions compared to petrol, because of the higher efficiency of diesel engines. However the overall climate change benefit may be negligible once refinery emissions and emissions of other climate change pollutants, such as black carbon, are taken into account.
Petrol vehicles produce less local air pollution with their lower NOx and particulate emissions. Some new petrol technologies now coming onto the market offer significant improvements in fuel efficiency. Compare fuel economy and CO 2 figures for petrol and diesel models to see what the differences are. Biofuels are produced from oil of crops such as oilseed rape, sunflowers and soybeans, and from waste cooking oils.
Biodiesel is more widely available than bioethanol and some higher blends of biodiesel can also be used in some vehicles. Availability of these vehicles is currently limited but improving. However, the Government has started to reduce the tax differential between LPG and conventional fuels and will continue to do so over coming years. On local emissions LPG vehicles tend to have cleaner exhausts than petrol vehicles, and diesel like emissions of CO 2.
CNG vehicles can also run on biomethane, offering even lower CO 2 emissions. LPG and CNG cars are generally converted from petrol fuelled cars, either by the original manufacturer or by a specialist converter.
These are likely to give the best performance. A number of Electric Vehicles EVs are available. They are cheap to run and have virtually no emissions at the point of use, although when the batteries are charged emissions are created at power stations.
The drawbacks are that battery technology, although improving, remains heavy and expensive. EVs have a limited range — typically miles — and can take several hours to recharge, but are worth considering as an urban runabout suitable for shorter journeys. Hybrid vehicles use a conventional petrol engine in conjunction with an electric motor and a battery.
The extra power of the electric motor allows a smaller petrol engine to be used and for it to be loaded more efficiently. This can reduce CO 2 and local pollutant emissions. Some hybrids operate on their electric motor alone for short periods of time at low speeds. There are now several hybrid models available in the UK. The hybrid drive can be used to reduce emissions or alternatively to improve performance over models with a similar sized petrol engine.
These can be battery operated hybrids or plug-in hybrids, which can be recharged externally. In these models the electric motor does not provide power to propel the vehicle, but allows the petrol engine to stop when the vehicle comes to a halt. Fuel cell vehicles combine hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the air to produce electricity. This is then used to propel the vehicle, the only exhaust emissions being water. Emissions are produced in the production of the hydrogen fuel; at present most hydrogen comes from reforming natural gas.
Although fuel cell vehicles are clean and quiet they are currently in the early stages of development, and it will be some years before they become common on our roads. Department for Transport Tel: Contact form.
Office for Low Emissions Vehicles Email: olev. Campaign for Better Transport Tel: Email: info bettertransport. Vehicle Certification Agency Tel: Email: fuel vca. Environmental Transport Association Tel: Email: eta eta. Liftshare Tel: E-mail: info liftshare. Carplus Tel: Contact form. EPUK calls for a joined-up policy approach across government departments, which clearly recognises and actively communicates the public health AND climate change implications of diesel and petrol to enable consumers to make a rational and informed decision regarding fuel-type and, indeed, mobility choice.
Air Quality Air pollutants from transport include nitrogen oxides, particles, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. Resource Use Vehicles have a major impact on the environment through their construction, use and eventual disposal. Local Impacts Vehicle use affects our whole quality of local life.
What are the Government doing to reduce car pollution? Emission Standards All new cars must comply with strict EU vehicle emission standards, known as Euro standards. What can I do to reduce car pollution? Follow the checklist to ensure you minimise your impact: Avoid using cars for short journeys — combine trips or, alternatively, walk, cycle, or take a bus.
Care for your vehicle — check tuning, tyre pressure, brakes and fuel consumption — regular servicing helps keep your car efficient and saves fuel.
Lighten up — roof racks add drag and other unnecessary weight increases fuel consumption. When your tyres need replacing consider low rolling resistance replacements — ask your tyre fitter for advice. Drive gently — racing starts and sudden stops increase fuel consumption. Use higher gears when traffic conditions allow.
Steady you speed — at around 50mph 80 kph emissions will be lowest, rising dramatically above 70mph kph. Switch off when stationary — if stuck in traffic or stopping more than a minute.
Idling engines make sitting in jams even more unpleasant. Do not run the engine unnecessarily — drive off soon after starting in some areas it may be an offence to leave the engine running. To answer this question, we first need to understand two things. First, how pollution by means of transport is measured.
And second, how comparisons are made. In fact, to assess the emissions of a type of transport we must first know its fuel consumption per km. This number must afterward be multiplied by a specific emission factor that depends on the fuel used. We then need to add this figure the emissions of the manufacturing and end of life phases of the vehicle analyzed. Afterward, the results are weighted and divided by the number of passengers and the number of kilometers traveled.
In the end, all these assumptions affect the final result. Looking at the numbers above, the plane seems to be the most polluting means of transport. Nevertheless, if we check the assumptions closer, the results might be tricky.
But is this assumption realistic? Not according to the Union of Concerned Scientists that claims the average occupancy rate of a car in the U. The point is that with fewer people all the car pollution would be up to g for 2 passengers or even g for 1 passenger. But is this figure true in all circumstances?
Definitely not. If we do the math, it means an average of passengers instead of the 88 used in the figures above. And of course, if we considered a bigger plane, the figures would still be different as they make bigger trips and consume more fuel.
It really depends on assumptions such as distance or number of passenger. But other variables can make a difference too. These studies can have more bias than the ones mentioned above. Because to have a realistic figure, variables like recent technical evolutions or start and stop engines need to be considered too.
Driving inside cities with the air-con on means a higher fuel consumption, for instance. Because of this, it should be taken with care. In other words, a car emits more CO2 than the average planes because they consume more energy to transport the same amount of passengers. As well, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation ICCT , on average, on a long journey, a car with 2 people emits a little more CO2 than if these two people had flown.
Of course, the analogy can only be justified for comparable distances: it is obvious no one will make New York — Sydney by car. A car stuck in a traffic jam emits 2. In this way, taking the car with 3 people for holidays can mean a larger carbon footprint than flying. Hence, other types of emissions, such as fine particles , which are much higher for road transportation, should be considered too. In the end, a journey by plane is often environmentally better than one by car for long journeys.
All other things being alike, choosing the plane increases the occupancy rate of the planes — which will take-off anyway whether you are in it or not.
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