CO2 Emissions from Road Traffic Decrease for the First Time After the Coronavirus Pandemic
In 2025, road traffic in the Netherlands emitted 26.6 billion kilograms of CO2. That is 1.6 percent less than in 2024 and 2.2 percent less than ten years ago. For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, CO2 emissions from road traffic have decreased again.
This is according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Passenger cars are responsible for nearly 58 percent of all CO2 emissions from road traffic. In 2025, these cars emitted nearly 15.4 billion kilograms of CO2, 1.9 percent less than a year earlier.
However, slightly more kilometers were driven (+0.6 percent). The decrease is mainly because people are driving electrically more often. Electric cars do not emit CO2 while driving.
The emissions per kilometer of regular cars have remained almost the same as in 2024. Only emissions during driving are counted, not the emissions from producing electricity for electric cars. Commercial vehicles, such as delivery vans and trucks, together account for 40 percent of road emissions.
Their CO2 emissions were also lower in 2025 than in 2024. This is mainly because commercial vehicles drove fewer kilometers that year. Compared to 2015, the total CO2 emissions from road traffic are 608 million kilograms lower.
Passenger cars now emit 9.1 percent less CO2 than ten years ago. Vehicles with a moped license plate emit the least CO2, and their emissions have also decreased the most sharply. Buses, such as city buses and coaches, emitted 1.2 percent of all CO2.
That is 39.9 percent less than ten years ago. The CO2 decline is mainly because there are more electric and cleaner cars. In 2025, 7.4 percent of passenger cars are fully electric.
For mopeds, that is 14.7 percent. For buses, 26.9 percent are electric. But for commercial vehicles overall, emissions have actually increased compared to 2015.
This is mainly because these vehicles drive many more kilometers than ten years ago. Of all commercial vehicles, 4.1 percent are fully electric.