page_title: Environmental impact of transport
hierarchical_section_title: Environmental impact of transport
caption_attribution_description: English: Placard "Fueling climate chaos", at the People's Climate March 2017.
context_page_description: The environmental impact of transport is significant because transport is a major user of energy, and burns most of the world's petroleum. This creates air pollution, including nitrous oxides and particulates, and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide.
  Within the transport sector, road transport is the largest contributor to global warming.
  Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle's emission.
  However, this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles, and increased use of each vehicle.
  Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles have been considerably studied.
  Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes, causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport, and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency.
  The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
  An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation—and in some regions, the proportion is even higher.
context_section_description: The environmental impact of transport is significant because transport is a major user of energy, and burns most of the world's petroleum. This creates air pollution, including nitrous oxides and particulates, and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide.
  Within the transport sector, road transport is the largest contributor to global warming.
  Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle's emission.
  However, this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles, and increased use of each vehicle (an effect known as the Jevons paradox).
  Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles have been considerably studied.
  Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes, causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport, and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency.
  The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the United States.
  An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation—and in some regions, the proportion is even higher.
  Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S., accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990.
  Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl, which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands. By reducing transportation emissions globally, it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth's air quality, acid rain, smog and climate change.
  The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern. A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth.
  As listed above direct impacts such as noise pollution and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment, along with indirect impacts. The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage. For example, particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine, are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition. Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts. The synergetic consequences of transport activities. They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem. Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors. 15% of global CO₂ emissions are attributed to the transport sector.
caption: Placard against fossil fuel transports, at the People's Climate March (2017).
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1692", "Image ImageLength": "2167", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image YCbCrSubSampling": "1", "Image DateTime": "2017:04:29 17:21:00", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D90", "Image Software": "PaintShop Pro 19.00", "Image InterColorProfile": "[]", "Image IPTC/NAA": "[28, 2, 55, 0, 8, 50, 48, 49, 55, 48, 52, 50, 57]", "Image ExifOffset": "194", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "644", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4157", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11936", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1692", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2167", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:04:29 16:19:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:04:29 16:19:30", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "22/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "75", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "112", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}