The latest in a series of UC Davis studies on the transportation impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and shelter-at-home orders says the huge drop in daily driving over the past six weeks has resulted in a significant decline in greenhouse gas emissions across the United States.
The transportation sector — planes, trains and automobiles, plus trucks, ferries and other conveyances burning fossil fuels — is the largest single source of such emissions.
U.S. total vehicle miles traveled fell 71% between early March and mid-April, according to a report released Friday by UC Davis' Road Ecology Center. It calculates that in the first week of March, transportation nationwide emitted the equivalent of 44 million tons of carbon dioxide. In the second week of April, that total fell to 12 million tons.
Assuming emissions remained low through the end of April — a conclusion backed up by a recent analysis of U.S. traffic patterns — the reductions amount to a 4% decrease in total annual U.S. emissions from all sources.
Separately, the International Energy Agency on Friday forecast an 8% worldwide decline in greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, compared to last year.