Energy and Climate Change
Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are trapping more of the sun's energy in the Earth's atmosphere,
causing global climate change.
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Carbon dioxide (CO2) from burning fossil fuels is the most important human-made GHG.
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Highway vehicles account for 26% of our CO2 emissions (1.7 billion tons each year).
- 95% of the GHG emitted from highway vehicles is CO2.
You'd Be Amazed...
Each gallon of gasoline you burn creates 20 pounds of CO2.
The average vehicle emits around 6 to 9 tons of CO2 each year.
What Can I Do?
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Pollution control devices cannot reduce your car's CO2 emissions. You can only reduce them by
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Reduce your carbon footprint by choosing a car with better gas mileage
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We Can Help
Fueleconomy.gov's Find-a-Car feature provides a carbon footprint for each vehicle
that shows
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Estimated annual tons of CO2 emitted
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CO2 emissions relative to other vehicles
More Information on Climate Change
Global Warming and Our Changing Environment: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (EPA Booklet)
More Global Warming FAQs from EPAIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Global Warming: Frequently Asked Questions (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA])
*Some documents on this page are provided as Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Any PDF file can be downloaded, viewed on screen, and printed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. This free software can be downloaded from the Adobe Web site. Installation and setup instructions are provided on this site.
Data Sources
Highway vehicle CO2 emissions based on EPA's Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990 – 2006. April 2008.
Average vehicle CO2 emissions based on Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 27. Table 11.9, p. 11-13. 2008.
