An atmospheric chemist from the University of California, Berkeley, has established an extensive CO2 monitoring network in the San Francisco Bay Area. The network has provided the first evidence that the use of electric vehicles is effectively reducing the region’s carbon emissions. These groundbreaking findings have been published in the prestigious journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Since 2012, the chemist, Cohen, has been developing a Bay Area sensing network, which has now expanded to over 80 stations, including seven in San Francisco. The network spans from Sonoma County through Vallejo and down to San Leandro.
Between 2018 and 2022, 57 sensors in the Berkeley Environmental Air Quality and CO2 Network (BEACO2N) observed a gradual decline in CO2 emissions, averaging about 1.8% annually. This equates to a 2.6% reduction in vehicle emission rates each year. Analysis of California’s electric vehicle adoption data, particularly high in the Bay Area, led Cohen and graduate student Naomi Asimow to attribute this decline to the electrification of passenger vehicles.
“This represents a 2.6% reduction in CO2 per mile driven annually,” explained Asimow, a member of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science.
Cohen emphasized that the study demonstrates the value of an urban network for monitoring and addressing federal, state, and city mandates for CO2 reduction.
2024-04-04 13:51:05
Original from phys.org