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Written question asked by Karen Buck (Labour) on Tuesday, 19 July 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 5 September 2011. It was answered by Norman Baker (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 3 October 2011 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Motor Vehicles: Carbon Emissions

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport with reference to his Department's document, Road Vehicle Emission Factors 2009, what the (a) laden and (b) unladen full emissions profile per mile is of (i) diesel and (ii) petrol (A) 38 tonne heavy goods vehicles (HGV), (B) 44 tonne HGVs, (C) transit type vans and (D) family saloons.
Answer

The Road Vehicle Emissions Factors 2009 research project provided recommendations on improving methodologies and some of the input data required to model national air pollutant emissions from road transport. To estimate UK average emissions profiles for different vehicle types requires these recommendations to be combined with UK fleet composition and total traffic activity data.The following figures for oxides of nitrogen (NOx), particulate matter (PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) and methane (CH4) emissions have been generated by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, which AEA Technology produce under contract to DEFRA. This combines the 2009 emissions factors with national fleet and traffic data to produce estimates of total UK emissions. The CO2 emissions figures are derived from DEFRA's greenhouse gas reporting guidelines, these use the 2009 emissions factors (along with fleet and traffic data) plus improved data on HGV CO2 emissions from DFT freight surveys.

Grams/mile
CO2
Vehicle NOx PM10 CO NMVOC CH4 Laden Unladen
38T HGV 11.2 0.178 2.05 0.286 0.069 1,860 1,110
44T HGV 12.5 0.195 1.31 0.303 0.069 2,230 1,340
Petrol transit size van 1.14 0.005 16.0 1.36 0.036 413
Diesel transit size van 1.37 0.122 0.852 0.139 0.004 432
Petrol saloon 0.344 0.003 4.48 0.343 0.016 340
Diesel saloon 0.712 0.065 0.13 0.05 0.002 288

The 2009 emissions factors reflect average vehicle loading and do not provide corrections to adjust for different vehicle loading states. However, the greenhouse gas reporting guidelines do provide data for different loading states for HGVs (figures for other vehicle types reflect emissions at average loading).It should be noted that some of the vehicle categories are not necessarily directly compatible, e.g. petrol vans appear to have lower CO2 emissions than diesel vans suggesting that the petrol vans modelled are on average smaller and lighter than the average diesel vans modelled.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
68700; 532 c1388W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Exhaust emissions Motor vehicles Carbon emissions
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk