SUVs are driving more emissions growth than heavy industry, aviation or shipping

(Eco Business, 21 Oct 2019) SUVs were the second-largest contributor to growth in greenhouse gas emissions from 2010 to last year, ahead of industries such as iron and steel, cement, trucks and aviation, said the International Energy Agency.

The world’s appetite for fuel-guzzling sport utility vehicles, or SUVs, is driving growth in demand for oil as well as carbon emissions from passenger cars.

SUVs were the second-largest contributor to growth in greenhouse gas emissions from 2010 to last year, according to a new analysis by the International Energy Agency. Spewing about 700 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide over the last decade, SUVs were second only to the power sector as the biggest emitter, and ahead of industries such as iron and steel, cement, trucks and aviation.

SUVs—which combine features of road-going cars and off-road vehicles, such as four-wheel drive⁠—have accounted for 60 per cent of the increase in global car fleet since 2010. There are now more than 200 million SUVs on the road.

“In 2010, 18 per cent of all car sales in the world were SUVs. Last year, more than 40 per cent of all cars sold in the world were SUVs,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said at an electric energy conference in Paris last week.

Passenger cars account for nearly a quarter of global oil demand and are a major source of emissions and air pollution. An SUV consumes about 25 per cent more energy than a medium-sized car on average and, being bigger and heavier, is harder to electrify, wrote IEA energy modellers Laura Cozzi and Apostolos Petropoulos in a commentary on the agency’s website.

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Eco Business, 21 Oct 2019: SUVs are driving more emissions growth than heavy industry, aviation or shipping