Road transport

Millions of cars, vans, trucks and buses move people and goods around on Europe's extensive road transport infrastructure. Despite a shift towards electric vehicles[1] in recent years, most vehicles in the EU still rely on petrol and diesel, which release air pollutants[2] that harm our health and greenhouse gases[3] emissions that contribute to climate change. Transport contributes to about a quarter of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions.

Three-quarters of these come from road transport. Noise pollution[4] is also a severe and often under-reported health impact for those living or working close to major roads. A growing reliance on road transport and expansion in road networks impacts biodiversity by shrinking and separating natural areas and limiting the ability of wildlife to move and migrate. 

Moreover, our roadways are getting busier and more congested. Our latest transport and environment report[5] shows that transport sector's transition towards sustainability is made difficult by the increasing transport demand and sluggish growth in sustainable transport modes for moving both people and freight. At the same time, the EU transport sector has succeeded in significantly reducing emissions of most air pollutants with policy measures, such as tighter emission standards, and technological development.

A significant share of this progress is due to reduced emissions in road transport. Electric cars, efficient engines and cleaner fuels will fall short of mitigating all the negative impacts of road transport. A sustainable road transport can only be achieved within a sustainable mobility system[6], with a focus on public transport and greener modes of transport, such as rail or cycling.

In 2022, greenhouse gas emissions from transport in the EU were about 26% higher than in 1990. One of the main reasons for this increase is the growing transport demand, that more than offsets efficiency gains, for example in engine technology. The uptake of electric vehicles has shown promising signs in recent years, and the deployment of cleaner fuels can contribute to reduce CO2 emissions of transport modes that are hard to electrify.

However, their deployment until now has been too slow to change the overall trend. In 2022, cars accounted for almost three quarters (73%) of passenger-kilometres travelled in the EU, and kilometres driven by car increased by 25% from 1995 to 2022.  Our indicators[7] also show that:

• At least 18 million people are highly annoyed and 5 million are highly sleep disturbed by long-term exposure to noise from transport[8] in the EU.
• Average CO2 emissions from all new cars registered in Europe in 2023 continued to decrease[9] and were 1.4% lower than in 2022, according to provisional data published by the EEA.

  Similarly, average CO2 emissions from new vans continued to fall, and were 1.6% lower than in 2022. The reductions in emissions from new cars and vans are related to the growing share of fully electric vehicles.

• 2022 saw a significant increase in the uptake of electric cars and vans[10] in the EU-27. Electric car registrations for the year represented 21.6% of the new cars registered. 
• The EU has not succeeded in meeting its 2020 target to reduce the greenhouse gas emission intensity of fuels[11] sold for road transport to 6% below 2010 levels.

  Between 2010 and 2021, the emission intensity decreased by 5.5%, mostly because of the increased use of biofuels.

EU policies to achieve more sustainable road transport are shaped mainly by the European Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility strategy[12]. The European Green Deal aims to achieve a 90% reduction in transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Specifically, the plan calls for a 55% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030.

EU efforts also include rigorous efforts to reduce average CO2 emissions from new vans and heavy-duty vehicles. EU policies also set milestones for road transport, such as at least 30 million zero-emission cars operating on European roads by 2030, and nearly all cars, vans, buses as well as new heavy-duty vehicles being zero-emission by 2050. Electrification of road transport and cleaner fuels[13] will play a key role in achieving climate neutrality in Europe by 2050.

Better efficiency of vehicles and biofuel use has partially offset emissions, but more cars and trucks are on the road -- and a small, but increasing, share of them are electric. The widespread uptake of electric vehicles in the coming years will depend on the development of charging infrastructure, and its sustainability will depend on how the electricity to charge the vehicles is produced. Also, as part of the European Green Deal, the European Commission proposed new Euro 7 standards for fuels[14], to reduce pollutant emissions from vehicles and improve air quality.

New testing procedures for passenger cars are also put in place to give a more accurate overview of vehicle emissions compared with the previously existing ones.

Achieving sustainability in road transport, however, requires going beyond efficiency gains, electric cars or cleaner fuels.

It requires a transformation of the entire mobility system[15], encompassing reframing the mobility need and how this need could be met through public transport, active mobility and cleaner modes.

References

1. ^ electric vehicles (www.eea.europa.eu)
2. ^ air pollutants (www.eea.europa.eu)
3. ^ greenhouse gases (www.eea.europa.eu)
4. ^ Noise pollution (www.eea.europa.eu)
5. ^ transport and environment report (www.eea.europa.eu)
6. ^ sustainable mobility system (www.eea.europa.eu)
7. ^ indicators (www.eea.europa.eu)
8. ^ ong-term exposure to noise from transport (www.eea.europa.eu)
9. ^ continued to decrease (www.eea.europa.eu)
10. ^ uptake of electric cars and vans (www.eea.europa.eu)
11. ^ greenhouse gas emission intensity of fuels (www.eea.europa.eu)
12. ^ Sustainable and Smart Mobility strategy (transport.ec.europa.eu)
13. ^ cleaner fuels (climate-energy.eea.europa.eu)
14. ^ new Euro 7 standards for fuels (ec.europa.eu)
15. ^ mobility system (www.eea.europa.eu)