Vehicle CO2 emissions rose almost 12% in seven years

Vehicle CO2 emissions reached 588.52ktons in 2017, up 11.9% from 2010, and an increase of 1.1% over the figures for 2016.

This indicates that 62.43ktons more of CO2 equivalent emissions were generated from road transport in 2017 compared to seven years prior.

The figures emerge from the National Statistics Office 2018 transport statistics, which focused on 2017 as a reference year.

(Source: NSO)

The statistics show that, since 1990 - the earliest year for which figures were supplied - CO2 road transport emissions have been generally rising.

In 1990, less than 300ktons of vehicle CO2 emission were released, but this almost doubled in less than two decades.

Interestingly, a CO2 emissions by year graph (see chart 3.40) indicates dips in emissions in 1998, 2001, 2004, 2009, and a slight general decrease or quasi-plateau between 2010 and 2013.

Since 2013, road emissions have risen steadily, however.

Over 372,000 vehicles on Maltese roads in 2017

By the end of 2017, there were 372,061 licensed vehicles in Malta, the statistics show, indicating a net increase of 13,114 - or 3.7% - over 2016 (see chart 3.7).

This resulted in an average net increase of approximately 36 vehicles a day on Maltese roads during 2017.

Passenger vehicles totalled 291,799, up 3.1% over 2016, with these accounting for 78.4% of total licensed vehicles.

In this regard, the stock of licensed motorcycles saw the highest percentage increase - at 10.4% - over 2016, with this being down to government budgetary measures introduced in 2015 to incentivise the use of such vehicles.

The Northern Harbour district claimed the largest number of licensed vehicles with a figure of 102,191 or 27.5% of the total.

(Source: NSO)

During 2017, Mosta had the highest number of licensed vehicles, with 17,910. Compared to the town's population of 20,551 persons, the locality had a ratio of 87 vehicles for every 100 inhabitants.