TRANSPORTATION AND CLIMATE

 By Akpabey Edem

                              

Riding your bicycle, turning off the in engine in your car when is not in use, picking public transport somethings and even walking to places that are not far from you goes a long way to help the climate. Our climate depends solely on us therefore there are some activities of ours that causes drastic change in our climate. For Example, driving to places where you can easily walk to goes along way to cause a change in our environment.
Have you ever wondered where the emissions from transports go to? The Means of transportation in Ghana has increased in these past few years and emissions from these vehicles is becoming too much. 
In a Contribution speech delivered by the Executive Director of Environmental Protection Agency Ghana, Mr Daniel Amlalo at The Ministerial Round Table Discussion on Enhancing Access to Sustainable Urban And Rural Transport At The High Level Segment Of The Csd-19, He stated that; Indeed, transport consumes energy and contributes significantly to climate change and atmospheric pollution. In Ghana, the transport sector contributes 23 % of energy related CO2 emissions and is the fastest growing sector in terms of GHG emissions in our country.
Also, During the United Nations Sustainable Transport conference in October 2021, a Fact sheet climate change was released, and it stated that;
The transport sector is responsible for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. 95 per cent of the world's transport energy still comes from fossil fuels. For 45% of countries transport is the largest source of energy related emissions. 

For the rest of the countries, it is the second largest source. Between 2000-2019, transport CO2 rose in all regions, except Europe where they fell 2%. Developing countries showed the fastest rates of growth, with Asia being the largest emitter in absolute terms in 2019. The transport sector accounted for 57% of global oil demand and 28% of total energy consumption. Transport-related CO2 emissions of the tourism sector are 22% of the whole. Currently, the CO2 emissions in the transport sector are about 30% in the case of developed countries and about 23% in the case of the total man-made CO2 emissions worldwide. By achieving a 60% share of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road, more than 60 billion tons of CO2 could be saved between now and 2050. Transport’s share of total national GHG emissions range from up to 30% in high income economies to less than 3% in LDCs.
Everyday toxic gases are released into the atmosphere and these gases are harmful to our climate. According to the environmental protection unit of USA, Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are emitted from the tailpipes of cars and trucks that combust fuel. Once GHGs are released, they can stay in the atmosphere for 100 years or more. GHGs act like a blanket around Earth, trapping energy in the atmosphere and causing it to warm. This can change Earth's climate, raise sea levels, and result in dangerous effects to human health and welfare, and to ecosystems.
The cars, trucks, tricycles, motorbikes etc do not just emit gases that are harmful to the health alone, the gases also cause a change in the climate which at the long run we suffer for it. So, according to EPA,USA they came up with some few measures to help reduce the impact of transportation on climate and they are:   .Drive less                                                                                                                                                      .Drive wise                                                                                                                                                    .Choose fuel efficient vehicles                                                                                                                     .Don’t idle                                                                                                                                                      .Optimize home deliveries                                                                                                                           .Use efficient lawn and gardening equipment