A prospective study to evaluate CO₂ emission mitigation strategies for highway transportation

Ranking as one of the largest mobility modes for passengers and freight, highway transportation globally accounts for huge amounts of fossil-based energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Correspondingly, on-road transportation causes detrimental effects on air quality, climate change, and global warming, particularly over the short term. In order to prevent a further escalation of this detrimental environmental issue, long-term efficacious policies aimed at reducing the transportation-driven CO₂ emission should be urgently enacted and implemented on a global scale. Thus, this paper presents an exploratory study with the main objective of investigating the impact of four adopted mitigation scenarios that suggest switching to Euro 6 vehicle emission standards, increasing the average urban traffic speed limits, encouraging public transport, and increasing the proportion of hybrid electric vehicles. This study then compared and contrasted each strategy and its subgroups with a reference scenario projected for the year 2025. The evidence from this research showed that transition to Euro 6 compliant vehicles significantly decarbonizes the transportation sector, yet more vehicle electrification is required to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement targets. The results also indicate that by 2025, a 10% shift from passenger cars to public transport will decrease CO₂ emissions by 3%, whilst increasing the urban traffic speed by 10 km/h will yield a 1.38% CO₂ gas emission saving. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]