Pollution & air qualityOutdoor air quality
Transportation
Exhaust from vehicles (cars, trucks, buses) as well as off-road engines (lawn mowers, snow mobiles) can cause serious harm to our environment and out health. Burning fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel creates many harmful chemicals. In fact, vehicle emissions are a major source of air pollution.
What pollutants are in vehicle emissions?
Carbon dioxide - a major contributor to the greenhouse effect and climate change. Your car produces twice its weight in carbon dioxide each year. About 30% of all CO2 emissions in Canada come from road vehicles.
Smog and acid rain chemicals - vehicles also contribute to smog and acid rain, producing 19% of nitrogen oxides, 23% of volatile organic compounds (which together create ground level ozone, a major component of smog) and 37% of the total carbon monoxide released each year as a result of human activity. Amounts of sulphur oxides continue to decrease as low sulphur fuels gain market penetration.
Fine particulate matter - a component of smog, deposited as soot. Fine particulate matter (PM) can accumulate in the upper atmosphere and affect climate change. When inhaled, it can cause serious health effects. The production of particulate matter less than 10 microns is associated particularly with the combustion of carbon-based and sulphur-based chemicals such as gasoline and diesel.
More about pollutants from transportation, and their health effects.
What you can do to reduce vehicle emissions
Alternative fuel options
Propane: Derived from natural gas, propane is a popular alternative fuel and is available across Canada. When compared with gasoline, propane produces fewer air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. Existing vehicles can be converted to use only propane, or both gasoline and propane. Use of propane can realize fuel cost savings of up to 40%.
Natural gas: Vehicles fuelled by natural gas use the household heating product. It is safe, reliable and is stored as a compressed gas in pressurized cylinders. Compared with gasoline, natural gas produces fewer air pollutants, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Use of natural gas in vehicles continues to increase world-wide. Existing vehicles can be converted to use either natural gas only, or a combination of natural gas and gasoline. Factory-produced vehicles are available. Use of natural gas can realize fuel cost savings of up to 40%.
Methanol: In North America methanol is commonly made from natural gas, but it can be made from renewable sources such as wood and municipal waste. Flexible-fuel vehicles are factory-built and allow the use of either M85 (a blend of 85% methanol/15% gasoline) or straight gasoline, or a combination of the two. The use of methanol reduces pollutants contributing to ground-level ozone.
Ethanol: Ethanol can be made from renewable resources such as grain, wood and municipal waste. Most conventional vehicles can use up to 10% ethanol without any modifications. Many filling stations in Canada offer such blends. Using ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Biodiesel: Biodiesel can be made from vegetable oils and animal fats. It produces few emissions than regular diesel and is biodegradable.
Electricity: Electric-powered vehicles produce no tailpipe emissions, but use electricity from sources such as electric power generating facilities which may produce pollution. New technologies continue to improve the speeds and distances that vehicles can travel while powered by electricity. Hybrid vehicles, which combine electricity and fuels, are increasingly available. Electric vehicles are energy efficient in part because they convert friction into electricity.
Hydrogen: Hydrogen is likely to be the vehicle fuel of the future. When produced from renewable sources, hydrogen has the potential to be one of the cleanest alternative fuels. Hydrogen gas is the most abundant element on earth, but needs to be extracted from compounds such as natural gas or from water before it is available as a fuel. It will likely be many years before hydrogen is a cost-effective and commercially available fuel.
Some provinces have laws about vehicle emissions
For more information on this topic, see the Transportation & air quality page from Environment Canada
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