Emissions per capita increased in Romania between 2010 and 2021, and about 67% of them come from cars, according to data presented on Wednesday at a specialized seminar by Mihai Stoica, executive director of the 2Celsius association, Agerpres reports.

“We can observe that the level of mobility in Romania doubled between 2000 and 2019 and continues to show an upward trend. At the same time, Romania has the lowest emissions per capita among the analyzed countries, Lithuania has the highest. At the same time, the emission intensity of all aggregated transport models is about 96 grams of carbon dioxide per person/kilometer in Romania,” Stoica explained.

He added that from 2000 to 2019, the share of cars in the transport structure remained unchanged, while the share of emissions increased slightly.

“It’s very interesting to note that the level of train use has decreased significantly between 2000 and 2021, and we could see that most passengers have moved from the train to the private car,” Stojka said.

According to statistics provided by 2Celsius, Romania is the country with the second oldest car fleet in Europe, with an average age of 16.9 years.

According to the specialist, the lack of measures to prevent the registration of old cars has led to a situation where Romania imports on average more than 400,000 used cars annually since 2017, when the car tax was abolished. Many of them with old diesel engines, “a consequence of the introduction of restrictions on diesel cars in many European cities after diesel”.

How old are cars in Romania?

“It should be noted that Romania has the second oldest fleet in Europe after Lithuania, with an average age of 16.9 years. This is at the level of 2022. This has increased slightly in recent years. The last time I checked, the age of the fleet was about 16.5 years. This means that programs such as Rabla, which over time offered fleet renewal, did not work without support measures,” Mihai Stojka said.

Market analysis shows that more than two-thirds (67%) of emissions from passenger transport in 2021 were accounted for by cars.

“In Romania, policies or fiscal measures that prevent travel by personal car are not used enough,” Stoica believes.

2Celsius is a non-governmental organization established in 2010 to influence climate change policy at the national and European levels. The association is a member of the international organizations European Environmental Bureau, Climate Action Network Europe and the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E).

Stoica’s comments come just a day after the first climate trial in Romania, inaugurated by the Declic association and supported by other environmental organizations, began in Cluj-Napoca.