14 DAY TRIAL // In a new report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change argues that, according to evidence at hand, the global transportation is currently one of the world's fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
More precisely, specialists working with the panel maintain that, if their estimates are correct, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released into the planet's atmosphere by the global transportation sector will up by a whopping 71% by 2050.
According to Oil Price, this 71% increase in emissions originating from cars, trucks, ships, and planes has been documented in comparison to a 2010 baseline.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change explains that, despite the fact that some progress has been made in terms of improving on the ecological footprint of various means of transportation sector, the fact remains that this sector is still heavily dependent on dirty fuels.
It is estimated that, this year alone, global car sales will increase by about 4% and hit 70.2 million, and that, by 2020, the yearly car market worldwide might expand by about 27%.
By the looks of it, this increase in the number of cars owned and driven around by people worldwide will largely be due to rising incomes in countries such as China, Brazil, and India.
Researchers with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say that, for the time being, the global transportation sector accounts for nearly 25% of the world's overall greenhouse gas emissions.
Should the car market continue to grow in the years to come, and should dirty fuels remain as popular as they currently are, odds are the transportation sector will become an even more powerful contributor to climate change and global warming.
E&E News informs that, in a recent interview with the press, a specialist wished to stress the fact that “[Transportation] could actually become one of the biggest sectors of emissions, because you can mitigate the other sectors more easily.”
What he meant to say is that, unlike the electricity sector, the transportation one is a tad more difficult to keep on a tight leash as far as greenhouse gas emissions are concerned. Hence, keeping it from being a major contributor to climate change and global warming is not something easily achieved.
This is because, whereas embracing green energy sources such as wind and solar is something fairly easy to do, promoting vehicles, aircraft and ships that harness zero-emission energy sources goes hand in hand with investing in sophisticated and sometimes expensive technologies.