ABSTRACT
Traffic (the transportation of people, goods and raw materials) contributes significantly to the emission of air pollutants as well as GHG (greenhouse gases), such as carbon dioxide (CO
emits GHG adding up to nearly 23 Mtons of CO 2 equivalents. Transportation
is the highest emitting sector in the Austrian economy with a share of 36 per cent of all GHG emissions. The large increase in GHG emissions since 1990 is mainly due to increased fossil fuel use by passenger and freight road transport (Umweltbundesamt 2008). Furthermore, the transport infrastructure, particularly roads and railways, and to a lesser extent transport by ship, may pose threats to the functioning of ecosystems by splitting coherent ecosystems into smaller areas with potentially important negative impacts on the viability of species (Löfvenhaft et al. 2004). Other environmental impacts of traffic include noise and other pollutants such as NO
2008). Austria’s CO
country’s failure to achieve the Kyoto targets (for Austria: a reduction of 13 per cent based on 1990 emissions) is road transport, and especially private cars and large trucks.
