Global Carbon Emissions
Climate change is one of the world’s most pressing challenges. Human emissions of greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide, methane, and others – have increased global temperatures by around 10 celsius since pre-industrial times.
A changing climate has a range of potential ecological, physical and health impacts, including extreme weather events ; sea-level rise; altered crop growth; and disrupted water systems. Emissions from the transport sector are a major contributor to climate change — about 14% of annual emissions and around a quarter of CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Even more concerning: At a time when global emissions need to be going down, transport emissions are on the rise, with improvements in vehicle efficiency more than offset by greater overall volume of travel.