Increased sales of electric vehicles (EVs) have “not made a dent” in transport emissions, a leading expert has said, as he called for SUVs “to be phased out of the market”.
Trinity College Dublin professor in the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, Brian Caulfield, said ever-increasing sales of SUVs, or sports utility vehicles, are cancelling out the emissions benefits of EVs, contributing to transport emissions rising just when they should be going down.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) interim energy balance report for 2022 showed that despite annual energy-related emissions in Ireland’s carbon budgets falling by 1.9% in 2022, the pace is too slow to meet 2030 targets.