Climate change

The goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If this limit is exceeded, it could have devastating long-term effects on both people and nature. Our contribution to this effort is to empower users to make informed decisions about their travel by taking emissions into consideration. Given the significant variations in emissions between countries, we are striving to provide accurate estimates for transportation in Norway specifically.

What are CO2 equivalents?

Different greenhouse gases (GHGs) have varying global warming potentials. Although carbon dioxide (CO2) is likely the most well-known GHG, CO2 emissions are responsible for only 80% of global warming. Therefore, it is crucial to measure emissions of other GHGs, such as methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), which, when accumulated, are responsible for 97% of global warming. The warming potential of CH4 and N2O is respectively 25 and 298 times greater than that of the same weight of CO2 over a 100-year period. Therefore, we will be using CO2 equivalents (CO2e) to estimate emissions, which captures the total warming potential from most emissions.

Methodology

The overall formula of our emission factors is based on the following formula:

To calculate the emissions per kilometer (gCO2eq/km), we factor in the transport emissions, which can be allocated among passengers (pkm). CO2e refers to the emissions produced when using a particular energy source, such as gasoline (gCO2eq/L) and electricity (gCO2eq/kWh). The energy factor (EF) represents the amount of energy required per kilometer for a specific mode of transportation (L/km and kWh/km). By combining these factors, we can estimate the GHG emissions per kilometer. However, it's important to note that our estimates do not consider emissions associated with the production and waste management of transportation methods. It's a common misconception that electric vehicles do not produce emissions, but this is not entirely accurate due to the emissions generated during electricity production. Furthermore, there are significant variations in emissions between countries.

Overview of emission factors

Transport	Fuel	Emissions (CO2eq)
Walk		0.0
Bike	No fuel	0.0
Bike	Electric	0.2
Car	Gasoline	155.5
Car	Diesel	141.8
Car	Electric (BEV)	7.2
Car	Plug-in hybrid (PHEV)	88.4
Motorcycle	Gas	163.5
Bus	Diesel	82.1
Train	Electric	0.4
Tram	Electric	3.1
Metro	Electric	3.9
Plane	Kerosine	101.0
Ferry with car		1,063.9
Ferry without car		54.1