A new study has concluded that the second largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions between 2012 and 2018 is the increase in demand for SUVs.
The report that was published by the International Energy Agency, the global market share for SUVs have doubled in the period under examination from 17 per cent to 39 per cent and the total emission of those vehicles was than the combined yearly total emissions of the UK and the Netherlands at more than 700 megatonnes of CO2 for the period.
The report also confirmed that on the power sector of the world spewed more CO2 into the environment while global sources of emission of green house gases from heavy industry (including iron, steel, cement and aluminium), aviation and shipping was lower than that form the SUVs.
“We were quite surprised by this result ourselves,” said Laura Cozzi, the chief energy modeller of the International Energy Agency,.
Both efficiency improvements in smaller cars and carbon savings from electric vehicles have been offset by the recent dramatic shift towards heavier SUVs. There has been a more than four-fold growth in the in last eight years of emissions from the vehicles even as there has been growing demand for SUVs globally.
“An SUV is bigger, it’s heavier, the aerodynamics are poor, so as a result you get more CO2,” said Florent Grelier from the campaign group Transport & Environment.
Between 2000 and 2016, the average mass of new cars rose by 10 per cent according to figures from T&E, which could be a because of an trend among customers to choose the heavier SUVs with the heavier automatic and dual-clutch gearboxes and the attachment of some other equipment on the vehicles such as cameras and sensors.
It has been a while that a global trend for likeness for bigger cars had been observable, but what surprised analysts and researchers if the impact that has had on emission levels from such vehicles, Grelier said. “The problem is much bigger than we expected,” he said.
In recent years, there has been a slowdown the global car market which has been attributed to the acrimonious trade war between the United States and China and the general slowdown in the wider Chinese economy.
However, while other classes of cars followed this trend, so far that trend has not affected SUVs and in 2018, a record number of SUVs - at 35 million, were sold globally. Major markets all around the world, from Europe and the US to China and India, all saw a steady increase in demand and sale of SUVs, shows the IEA figures.
This was another surprise: “We thought this was a trend that was more concentrated in a few countries … but it’s becoming really universal,” Cozzi said.
SUV accounts for one in two passenger cars sold in the US.
The emission study only took into account the carbon produced from fuel combustion and did not account for the emissions that are generated in the manufacturing process of the SUVs and it is estimated that manufacturing of larger cars would also mean greater amounts of emission.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
The report that was published by the International Energy Agency, the global market share for SUVs have doubled in the period under examination from 17 per cent to 39 per cent and the total emission of those vehicles was than the combined yearly total emissions of the UK and the Netherlands at more than 700 megatonnes of CO2 for the period.
The report also confirmed that on the power sector of the world spewed more CO2 into the environment while global sources of emission of green house gases from heavy industry (including iron, steel, cement and aluminium), aviation and shipping was lower than that form the SUVs.
“We were quite surprised by this result ourselves,” said Laura Cozzi, the chief energy modeller of the International Energy Agency,.
Both efficiency improvements in smaller cars and carbon savings from electric vehicles have been offset by the recent dramatic shift towards heavier SUVs. There has been a more than four-fold growth in the in last eight years of emissions from the vehicles even as there has been growing demand for SUVs globally.
“An SUV is bigger, it’s heavier, the aerodynamics are poor, so as a result you get more CO2,” said Florent Grelier from the campaign group Transport & Environment.
Between 2000 and 2016, the average mass of new cars rose by 10 per cent according to figures from T&E, which could be a because of an trend among customers to choose the heavier SUVs with the heavier automatic and dual-clutch gearboxes and the attachment of some other equipment on the vehicles such as cameras and sensors.
It has been a while that a global trend for likeness for bigger cars had been observable, but what surprised analysts and researchers if the impact that has had on emission levels from such vehicles, Grelier said. “The problem is much bigger than we expected,” he said.
In recent years, there has been a slowdown the global car market which has been attributed to the acrimonious trade war between the United States and China and the general slowdown in the wider Chinese economy.
However, while other classes of cars followed this trend, so far that trend has not affected SUVs and in 2018, a record number of SUVs - at 35 million, were sold globally. Major markets all around the world, from Europe and the US to China and India, all saw a steady increase in demand and sale of SUVs, shows the IEA figures.
This was another surprise: “We thought this was a trend that was more concentrated in a few countries … but it’s becoming really universal,” Cozzi said.
SUV accounts for one in two passenger cars sold in the US.
The emission study only took into account the carbon produced from fuel combustion and did not account for the emissions that are generated in the manufacturing process of the SUVs and it is estimated that manufacturing of larger cars would also mean greater amounts of emission.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)