4 ms·

What percentage of CO2 emissions are from cars?

• philipkglass 6y ago
  As of 2017, California had statewide emissions of 424 million tons CO2-equivalent [1]. "CO2-equivalent" emissions include the global warming effects of CO2 plus methane, nitrous oxide, and other gases, normalized to the global warming potential of CO2. (For example, emitting a ton of nitrous oxide is roughly equal to 298 tons of carbon dioxide on a 100 year time horizon [2].) Using California's Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory Query Tool [3], I searched for transportation, on road, light duty vehicles only, CO2 only. For 2017, the emissions were 58 million tons from light duty trucks and SUVs plus 58.4 million tons from passenger cars. The total of 116.4 million tons is about 27.5% of all California emissions. Since according to [1] the transportation sector accounts for 41% of all CA emissions, light duty road vehicles account for about 67% of California's transportation emissions. Heavy duty trucks account for another 32.3 million tons of CO2 emissions. [1] https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/inventory/pubs/reports/2000_2017/ghg_inventory_trends_00-17.pdf https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/inventory/pubs/reports/2000_2017/g... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential [3] https://www.arb.ca.gov/app/ghg/2000_2017/ghg_sector.php https://www.arb.ca.gov/app/ghg/2000_2017/ghg_sector.php
  • pwned1 6y ago
    Thank you, that's helpful.