In order to stabilize the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, carmakers in the U.S. will have to cut emissions eight-fold by 2050. That’s the conclusion of a new study from the University of Michigan.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has set targets for how to stave off the most dramatic effects of global warming by 2050.
And researchers at the U of M decided to find out exactly what would have to be done with automobiles to reach those targets.
The answer – cut emissions to an eighth of today’s levels.
Greg Keoleian is one of the study’s authors.
“So if we wanted to achieve that eight-fold reduction by improvement in fuel economy, we’d have to go from an on-road fuel economy today of about 20 miles per gallon up to 136 miles per gallon by 2050,” Keoleian says
He says that’s not a realistic goal. So to achieve the targets, he says the U.S. also needs to cut down on the number of miles driven, and find cleaner fuels.
