European car travel IPCC

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This category is deprecated. The IPCC methodology for European car transport can be found here

The category /transport/car/generic/ipcc/europe contains data on greenhouse gas emissions associated with European cars, organised according to emissions control standards, sourced from the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.

The IPCC methodology for greenhouse gas emissions associated with 'mobile combustion' recommend calculating CO2 emissions on the basis of fuel consumed, whereas those of CH4 and N2O vary more directly with other factors such as vehicle type, emissions control standards, and distance travelled. Therefore, this category provide a number of options for calculating car-associated greenhouse gas emissions, depending on which combination of fuel consumption, fuel efficiency and distance are specified.

To use this category, set the vehicle fuel type and emissions control standard using the fuel and technology drill options. Users can then choose between specifying only fuel consumption, or both fuel consumption and distances travelled.

Specifying fuel used only

Set the volume of fuel consumed using the fuelConsumed profile item value. If required, the occupancy profile item value can be specified, representing the number of passengers for which emissions are accountable. If no occupancy is specified, Discover assumes an occupancy of 1. The returned amount represents 'CO2 emissions' associated with the specified volume of fuel shared amongst all declared passengers.

Specifying fuel used and distance travelled

If both fuel consumed and distance travelled can be specified, Discover can use the IPCC methodology to calculate both CO2 and non-CO2 (i.e. CH4 and N2O) emissions. In these cases the returned value represents CO2e emissions (i.e. total greenhouse gas emissions expressed as the quantity of CO2 which would produce the same global warming effect).

If specifying values for distance and fuel consumption, both the distance travelled and the fuel consumed can be specified in a number of different ways, as described below. In any case, the occupancy profile item value can be specified, representing the number of passengers for which emissions are accountable. If no occupancy is specified, Discover assumes an occupancy of 1. The returned amount represents CO2e emissions associated with that volume of fuel shared amongst all passengers.

Setting the fuel consumed

To set the fuel consumed, users can specify the volume using the fuelConsumed profile item value. Alternatively, users can specify the rate at which their vehicle consumes fuel using the fuelEfficiency profile item value. In this case, Discover calculates the total fuel used from this 'efficiency' value together with the value for distance travelled (see below). CO2 emissions are based on this fuel consumption, while non-CO2 emissions are calculated directly from the distance travelled.

Setting the distance travelled

To set the distance travelled users may specify a total distance using the distance profile item value. Alternatively, users can specify a number of journeys of some fixed or average distance, by setting the distancePerJourney and numberOfJourneys profile item values. The total distance will then be calculated from these two profile item values.

If a specific number of journeys is taken on a regular basis, users can additionally choose to specify a frequency interval associated with the numberOfJourneys profile item value by specifying one of the following options using the frequency profile item value:

  • 'daily'
  • 'weekly'
  • 'monthly'
In these cases, the number of journeys taken to represent a value 'per day', or 'per week', etc. and therefore the total number of journeys is scaled up according to total annual travel. If no frequency profile item value is specified, then the returned value represents emissions associated with the absolute distance/number of journeys specified.

Emissions factor modifiers

By default, calculations based on distance - and therefore inclusive of CH4 and N2O - are made assuming the following split of driving styles:

  • urban driving, cold engine start: 30%
  • urban driving, hot engine start: 10%
  • highway driving: 30%
  • rural driving: 30%
Users can modify the emissions factors which are used to calculated per-distance CH4 and N2O emissions by specifying their specific mix of driving styles. To change the proportion of total car-travel in each of the four driving styles set the percentage (as a decimal between 0-1) using the urbanCold, urbanhot, highway, rural. These values must sum to 1, for a valid emissions calculation to be returned.

UIDLabel
8KFO2CPIBD4F diesel, euro 1
DJKH1BGRQ7BU diesel, euro 2
Total distance travelled
Distance travelled per journey
Total quantity of fuel consumed
Fuel consumption efficiency of vehicle
Frequency of journeys (e.g. 'daily', 'weekly', 'monthly')
Number of journeys made
Total occupancy of vehicle
Proportion of driving represented by a 'highway' context
Proportion of driving represented by a 'rural' context
Proportion of driving represented by a 'urban' context from a cold engine start
Proportion of driving represented by a 'urban' context from a warm engine start