Vehicles’ significant negative climate impact could have declined by more than 30% over the past decade without the global appetite for big cars, suggests a new report from the Global Economies Initiative fuel.
Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) now account for more than half of all new car sales worldwide, the group said, and it is not alone in making this observation. The International Energy Agency, using a narrower definition of SUVs, estimates they make up almost half.
Over the years, these cars have gotten bigger, and so has their impact on the climate, because carbon dioxide emissions “are almost directly proportional to the fuel consumption” of gasoline-powered cars. The carbon that enters the pump exits through the exhaust.
Transportation is responsible for about a quarter of all greenhouse gases from energy, and much of that is attributable to passenger vehicles, according to the International Energy Agency.
However, the negative environmental impact of SUVs could have been reduced by more than a third between 2010 and 2022 if people had simply continued to buy cars of the same size, according to the Global Fuel Savings Initiative, which is a partnership between various groups promoting greener modes of transportation, including the United Nations Ministry of the Environment and the International Council on Clean Transportation.
A solution to this problem could be electric vehicles.
George Parrott, a 79-year-old avid racer who lives in West Sacramento, California, decided to switch to cleaner vehicles in 2004 when he purchased a Toyota Prius hybrid. He has since owned several purely electric cars and currently owns both a Genesis GV60 electric SUV and a Tesla Model 3.
“It was all a combination of big environmental concerns,” he said.
Mr. Parrott and his former partner also knew that their region was high on the American Lung Association’s list of polluted cities. “We were going to do everything we could to minimize our impact on air quality here in the Sacramento region,” he said.
Sedans in decline
Not all consumers think the same way about energy consumption and environmental benefits, especially in the United States. While electric vehicle sales accounted for 15% of the global auto market last year, that proportion was just 7.3% in the United States.
Meanwhile, smaller vehicles, or sedans, have lost significant ground in the U.S. market over the past decade. In 2012, sedans accounted for 50 percent of the U.S. auto retail space, with SUVs accounting for just over 30 percent and trucks 13.5 percent, according to the online information resource at Edmunds car purchases. In 2022, the share of sedans in the United States fell to 21%, while that of SUVs reached 54.5% and that of trucks increased to 20%.
“People don’t want to be limited by how much space they have in their car,” said Eric Frehsée, president of the Tamaroff Dealer Group of Southeast Michigan. Everyone wants a seven-passenger vehicle. »
Additional efforts by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are being made to improve fuel economy of gasoline vehicles and exhaust emissions. Some initiatives could include SUVs, which has sparked industry outrage.
Until recently, consumers had few electric models to choose from if they wanted to reduce the impact of their own transportation. The majority of early electric car options were sedans, particularly from luxury companies.
More automakers are launching larger electric vehicle models, but these could require even heavier batteries. The environmental aspect also needs to be considered if an SUV is replaced by an electric vehicle, said Loren McDonald, the president and CEO of market analysis firm EVAdoption.
“Electrification doesn’t do much for us unless we also focus on the weight and efficiency of these vehicles and smaller batteries,” McDonald said.
The industry is working to advance battery technology to reduce their size and the amount of essential minerals needed to make them.
Figures like those from the Global Fuel Savings Initiative will certainly be relevant during the upcoming climate change negotiations at the UN COP28, which takes place in Dubai next week.