United Nations Development Programme
Currently, transportation makes up 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To prevent a global temperature rise greater than 1.5⁰C, transportation across the world must change. In fact, with the right actions, transportation emissions can be reduced by up to 4.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (Gt CO₂) per year!
Click on the Transport mission image to see what the breakdown of global emission is by the type of transportation.
Source: IEA (2019)
Cars and buses cause a lot of pollution.
How will you make transport greener?
Every day millions of people use carbon intensive transportation. This leads to large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. To remain in line with the 1.5⁰C plan, personal transportation and public transportation will have to transition to a carbon neutral energy, such as electric cars using electricity from solar panels. In addition, other carbon neutral forms of transportation can be used, such as bicycles. This will dramatically reduce emissions and still allow people to travel and keep their lifestyles.
Ride sharing paired with better information and communication technologies can decrease congestion on roads. This decreases greenhouse gas emissions. However, this does not reduce emissions as much as switching to electric vehicles, since there are still carbon intensive vehicles on the road.
Cutting public transportation, such as bus routes, would increase greenhouse gas emissions instead of decreasing them. More people would individually take a carbon intensive form of transportation rather than sharing one. As a result, there would be more vehicles on the road emitting greenhouse gasses.
Transport is 23% of emissions. How can the transport of goods become greener?
Transporting goods is essential to almost all large city economies, and as a result, a lot of goods are moved from one place to another. As goods travel through trucks, boats and planes to reach their destination, a large amount of greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere. Since so many goods are shipped, the transportation of goods has a large carbon footprint. Switching transportation vehicles to run on low emission fuels can lead to large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and stay in line with the 1.5⁰C plan.
While transportation efficiency is a good tool to reduce emission, it unfortunately isn’t enough on its own to stay in line with the 1.5⁰C plan. Certain transportation sections, such as aviation, have the ability to make major emission reductions but not all sectors can do the same. Transporting goods on planes, ships, trains, and trucks that run on clean energy with low emission fuels have a better likelihood of leading to large emission reductions.
Stopping vehicle maintenance will increase emissions since vehicles won't be operating properly and as efficiently as possible.
How can you improve air quality in cities and rural communities?
Well designed cities and rural areas can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When cities and rural areas are more densely populated and designed well, residents can walk, bike, or take public transportation to places instead of driving. This reduces the amount of vehicles on the road that emit greenhouse gasses.
Encouraging more green buildings is a good strategy in reducing emissions. However, green buildings are not as effective at reducing emissions as a well-designed city or rural area. Buildings can become more green by using less carbon intensive building materials during construction or by making the building more energy efficient. Creating green housings can create jobs, save money and most importantly, shape a built environment that has a net positive environmental influence.
When trees are cut down it increases greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, harms ecosystems, increases the effects of climate disasters and threatens food security. As a result, it is not in line with the 1.5⁰C plan.
Use electric cars and buses, or bicycles
Every day millions of people use carbon intensive transportation. This leads to large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. To remain in line with the 1.5⁰C plan, personal transportation and public transportation will have to transition to carbon neutral energy, such as electric cars using electricity from solar panels. In addition, other carbon neutral forms of transportation can be used, such as bicycles. This will dramatically reduce emissions and still allow people to travel and keep their lifestyles.
Using public transportation is a good way to have fewer cars on the road. However, not everyone has easy access to public transportation. Public transportation might also not take people where they need to go. Increasing public transportation routes, such as adding more bus routes, will allow more people to rely on their public transportation system rather than driving their cars. As a result, the amount of pollution will be reduced. This, however, would not reduce emissions as much as making all transportation run on clean energy.
Building more roads in certain areas could encourage the use of more cars, and in turn lead to more emissions.
Switch to clean energy planes, ships, trains and trucks
Transporting goods is essential to almost all economies. As goods travel through trucks, boats, trains and planes to reach their destination, a large amount of greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere. Since so many goods are shipped, the transportation of goods has a large carbon footprint. Switching transportation vehicles to low emission fuels, can lead to large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and stay in line with the 1.5⁰C plan.
Reducing freight distances by avoiding unnecessary travel or finding shorter routes will help reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted. Without changing to a clean fuel source, however, transportation of freight will still emit a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Also, the distance freight travels can only be reduced so much and, as a result, emissions can only be reduced by so much. Switching to clean powered transportation will allow for a large reduction of emission, despite the distance travelled.
Older vehicles do not run on clean energy and tend to be less efficient than newer vehicles. As a result, using old vehicles will not decrease emissions and are not in line with the 1.5⁰C plan.
How can you cut pollution in cities and rural communities?
Well designed cities and rural areas can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When cities and rural areas are more densely populated and designed well, residents can walk, bike, or take public transportation to places instead of driving. This reduces the amount of vehicles on the road that emit greenhouse gasses.
Running public transportation, such as buses on clean fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions within a community. However, by designing a community where people don’t use as much land and live within walking and biking distance of necessary resources, you reduce even more emissions because you reduce the need for vehicles.
Creating more parking will incentivize the use of vehicles. This will not decrease emissions and is not in line with the 1.5⁰C plan.
