Cutting Transport CO2 Emissions: What Progress?

This report reviews the progress ECMT and OECD countries have made in reducing transport
sector CO2 emissions and makes recommendations for the focus of future policies. National
communications under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other recent policy
statements were used to assemble a database of over 400 abatement policies introduced or under
development. This reveals that transport sector CO2 emissions steadily increased over the last ten years
despite significant efforts to cut them in some countries. Assuming real household disposable incomes
continue to grow at a faster rate than the real cost of transport this trend is likely to continue. Slowing
the growth of transport sector CO2 emissions would require more government action and an
increasingly pro-active role from transport sector industries in improving energy efficiency.