Investigation of the Diachronic Development of CO2 Emission Levels in Relation to Traffic Characteristics Along Major Road Axes During an Era of Recession: the Case of Greece

The problem of reducing CO2 emissions from transport, a major contributor to the greenhouse effect, has become a growing concern for the scientific community and various international committees monitoring climate change. Energy savings in the transport sector are a key factor towards rational management of oil reserves, while new trends in the automotive market have already been established, supported by research on efficient and environmentally-friendly technologies and alternative fuels to face fossil fuel dependency. The road transport sector is an important part for most developed economies but also a major source of pollutant emissions. In this framework, this paper focuses on transport emissions along the main road axis in Greece, connecting the country’s two largest urban areas, during the years 2008-2014, a period of prolonged recession. Based on traffic data collected at the toll stations along the highway, greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions were calculated using the COPERT4 emission estimation tool. According to the results, a sharp fall in emissions is observed largely due to traffic volume reductions, but also due to a prevailing trend for larger displacement vehicles and technologically improved vehicles with better environmental standards.