Reducing road emissions requires all hands on deck

AT the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasglow last November, more than 100 representatives of nations, cities, states, businesses, and investors signed a pledge to rapidly accelerate the transition to zero-emissions vehicles - namely to work towards all new car and van sales being zero emissions globally by 2040 and 2035 in leading markets.

Particularly for this pledge, a zero-emission car or van has been defined as one that produces zero greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Signatories included countries such as the UK, Norway, Cambodia, and New Zealand, as well as major automotive manufacturers Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo.

In some of these countries, a lot of the hard work to achieve this target has been overcome or is underway. For example, the Norwegian Road Federation reported that almost 80 per cent of all new vehicles sold in September 2021 were electric.