Road transport

Road transport emissions were 10 MtCO₂e in 2018, 0.2 MtCO₂e lower than last year, accounting for 68% of Scotland’s total transport emissions. Figure 3 shows the year-on-year change in Scotland’s road transport emissions.

Figure 3: Time series of Scotland’s road transport emissions, 1990-2018 (Source: NAEI).

Figure 3: Time series of Scotland’s road transport emissions, 1990-2018 (Source: NAEI).

A number of factors have influenced the fluctuations in road transport emissions in recent years. While road vehicles have become more fuel efficient, this has largely been offset by an increase in vehicle kilometres. Since 2011, vehicle kilometres have increased by 4.7 billion representing a 10% increase over the past eight years, whilst road transport emissions have increased by 7% over the same timeframe.^[2] The category which experienced the greatest proportional increase in 2018 was Other Road Transport which includes residual emissions from car engines, anti-freeze products as well as LPG and biofuels components of petrochemicals. In 2018, Other Road Transport increased by 6.4%, however this equates to less than a 0.01 MtCO₂e increase.