Environmental protection

Product roadmaps - Cars

As part of our work on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), we are working to understand and add value to current policies to improve the  environmental performance of cars.

Why cars?

Evidence shows that, at an EU-25 level, passenger transport accounts for 15-35 percent of all environmental impacts.

Within this broader category, we know that cars generate significant environmental impacts across their life cycle, including resource depletion, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, noise and waste.

Current activities

A report detailing the current status of the roadmap has been prepared to coincide with the publication of the Progress Report on Sustainable Products and Materials.

Impacts and consumption trends

Sustainablity impacts
  • One of the most significant impacts from cars is the CO2 emissions generated when the car is in use.
  • Approximately 21 percent of the UK’s man made CO2 emissions are from road transport (freight and passenger transport). Since 1990 UK road transport CO2 emissions have increased by 9 percent (source: Defra Statistics based on SD indicators, 2005)
  • While the EU as a whole has reduced emissions of greenhouse gases by just under 5 percent over the 1990-2004 period, CO2 emissions from road transport have increased by 26 percent. Road transport is the biggest transport emission source (94 percent of domestic emissions) with approximately 1/3 from freight, 2/3 from passengers
  • Road transport relies quasi exclusively on fossil fuels, consuming 60 percent of all the oil consumed in the EU (source: EC Communication: Community Strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from passenger cars and light-commercial vehicles Impact Assessment (2007))
  • End of Life vehicles generate between 8 and 9 million tonnes of waste in the EU and over 2 million in the UK (source: Defra Waste Statistics, 2005)
Consumption trends
  • The numbers of vehicles on the roads of Great Britain have increased steadily. In 1970 there were just under 10 million private cars; in 2005 there were over 26 million (source: Environment Agency)

Further information

 

Page last modified: 10 July 2008

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs