Looking at the vehicle population today, it is obvious that there are wide disparities between different regions of the world and transport modes. For example, except OECD countries, most of the world's people still live and work largely without motorized transport. These countries stand at a point where they still can decide upon the development of their future mobility needs and hopefully choose a more sustainable and climate-friendly transport model.
The prognoses of the IPCC show very clearly how important for the world climate the future transport policy of these countries is. The IPCC warns that under a 'business-as-usual' scenario the "industrialized countries are expected to continue to contribute the majority of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions until 2025. After 2025, the majority of transport-related emissions may be from countries that are currently developing rapidly or that have economies in transition." [20] Following this trend, the transport sector, with an increase of energy consumption between 40 and 100%, is one of the most rapidly growing economic sectors.
| CO2 emissions from passenger transport in OECD countries 1973-90 [21]: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | CO2 emission (in t CO2, per person) | Car ownership (per 1000 persons) | ||
| 1973: | 1992: | 1973: | 1992: | |
| USA | 4.09 | 3.80 | 470 | 571 |
| Japan | 0.66 | 1.13 | 134 | 315 |
| France | 0.87 | 1.26 | 274 | 417 |
| Germany | 1.06 | 1.64 | 275 | 499 |
| Italy | 0.62 | 1.20 | 242 | 452 |
| UK | 0.92 | 1.37 | 237 | 355 |
| Norway | 0.79 | 1.27 | 231 | 377 |
| Sweden | 1.25 | 1.58 | 303 | 410 |
| Denmark | 1.08 | 1.11 | 265 | 322 |
| ADD SCHEME Scholl et al., Figure 1, p. 21, Source: [see 21] | ||||
