Actually, passenger cars and
Actually, passenger cars and light duty trucks are responsible for the largest amount of emissions among all internal combustion powered vehicles (however some forms of emissions, like particulate emissions may have a higher proportion coming from heavy duty diesel powered vehicles or small two stroke engines). This is because there are so many more passenger cars and light duty vehicles than the other types. And I agree with you, we need to get rid of all of these fossil fuel burning engines as quickly as we can. I believe the general intention may be to let consumer preference at least lead the transition to electric and battery powered replacements for small two and four stroke engines commonly used in yard equipment and recreational equipment. More or more people are buying electric lawn mowers, leaf blowers, power washers, and small dirt bikes because they are just easier and cheaper to maintain and noticeably eliminate noxious air fro the users. While we might need incentives (or higher taxes) to full transition away from those engines, ultimately, hopefully that will only be necessary in a few cases. The far more difficult transition is going to be for heavy duty vehicles (diesel powered trucks, vans, trains, ships, and of course all those planes running on gas or jet fuel). Batteries need to evolve a couple of generations to be energy dense enough to replace most of these applications (though hybrids, hydrogen powered versions, or other means could be employed sooner to help move them in the right direction at least). There also simply isn’t enough supply of batteries to do all these things in a short timeframe. What we need is a globally sustained effort to dramatically increase the battery production, and full recycling/reuse of them, to replace fossils fuels. It is going to take the cooperation of at least all the worlds major economies and it won’t be easy any way we look at it.