The energy used by cars and their CO2 emissions could have dropped by over 30% in the past decade if not for the world’s growing taste for SUVs, a new report from the Global Fuel Economy Initiative suggests

The negative impact on the climate from passenger vehicles, which is considerable, could have dropped by more than 30% over the past decade if not for the world’s appetite for large cars, a new report from the Global Fuel Economy Initiative suggests.

Sport utility vehicles, or SUVs, now account for more than half of all new car sales across the globe, the group said, and it’s not alone. The International Energy Agency, using a narrower definition of SUV, estimates they make up nearly half.

Over the years these cars have gotten bigger and so has their cost to the climate, as carbon dioxide emissions “are almost directly proportional to fuel use” for gas-powered cars. The carbon that goes in at the pump comes out the tailpipe.

Transportation is responsible for around one-quarter of all the climate-warming gases that come from energy, and much of that is attributable to passenger transport, according to the International Energy Agency.

    • distractionfactory@lemmy.world
      13·
      11 months ago

      Literally having smaller cars available to buy would help. There are very few cheaper aka smaller car options, and even fewer that are marketed well. They have no reason to make small cars when they have spent decades cultivating the market for SUVs and trucks.

      • rab@lemmy.ca
        5·
        11 months ago

        Agree also. I wish we could buy a 1.2L engine car with a 5 speed transmission and manual windows. No iPad on the dash. That is all anyone needs, extremely simple to repair, low impact, but alas…

        And as someone who needs a truck, why can’t we just buy a simple body on frame pickup with a single cab and an 8ft bed anymore? It is so hard to buy a truck these days that can actually do work. I don’t need an entertainment system or heated leather seats in my truck lol.

        • Fondots@lemmy.world
          6·
          11 months ago

          My parents have a '93 Ford ranger, single cab, 7ft bed, 4cylinder engine, manual locks and windows. It’s been plenty of truck for just about anything we’ve ever needed a truck for, and for a 30 year old vehicle it manages to get around 20mpg, which is not to shabby even for a lot of modern trucks or SUVs.

          I would love to be able to buy pretty much exactly that truck with a roughly equivalent modern engine that gets as good or better MPG and maybe a small horsepower boost. I don’t need it to be a towing/hauling monster, or go faster or anything, I just need it to carry some lumber from the hardware store to my house, some camping gear a few times a year, the occasional couch or refrigerator, and maybe once in a blue moon a small load of firewood.

          I also would not mind 4wd/AWD, because that truck is kind of shit in any kind of bad weather or gravel, but I don’t exactly plant to go off-roading with it or anything, the worst it would ever be likely to see is some shitty gravel roads or parking lots in national parks, so that’s negotiable, I just have to not drive like a moron.