Breakdown of US Transportation GHG Emissions
The Art
The Science
What’s Inspiring
2035 2.0 THE REPORT - TRANSPORTATION APRIL 2021, Figure 1 (Art is based on figure to the right)
“Total U.S. GHG emissions, 1990–2018 (left), and total U.S. transportation GHG emissions, 2018 (right). The transportation sector is responsible for nearly 30% of total economy-wide GHG emissions (EPA 2021). In 2018, on-road vehicles—the focus of this report—were responsible for nearly 84% of transportation emissions. Aviation, shipping, rail, and other transportation categories are not considered in [the report] (image recreated from EPA 2021).
Electric vehicles (EVs) are the key to rapidly decarbonizing the U.S. transportation sector. Although EV technology dates back to the beginning of the 1900s, recent advances in battery cost and performance, vehicle range, and recharging—along with a proliferation of EV models from automakers and a rapidly expanding network of vehicle chargers—have readied EVs to overtake gasoline and diesel vehicles as the dominant on-road technology, based on economics alone. Most importantly, the price of EV batteries declined 89% between 2010 and 2020 and is conservatively expected to fall 27% more by 2025 (Figure 2).1 In addition, EVs produce no tailpipe emissions, their high efficiency slashes GHG emissions,2 and overall emissions disappear as EVs are charged with increasingly carbon-free electricity. In short, electric vehicles are positioned to provide large individual, national, and global benefits in the near term. “ (report page 2)
