Dutch road traffic recorded a slight drop in carbon dioxide emissions last year compared to the previous twelve months, according to provisional data released by Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Dutch road transport produced just over 26.6 billion kilograms of CO2 in 2025, down from slightly more than 27 billion kilograms a year earlier. This marks the first decline in transport emissions since the coronavirus pandemic.
Passenger cars accounted for more than half of the overall total, generating over 15 billion kilograms of CO2—a reduction of almost 2 per cent year-on-year. CBS attributed this modest drop to a higher proportion of mileage being covered by electric vehicles, which produce zero tailpipe emissions while driven. The agency highlighted that these figures strictly reflect operational emissions, excluding those generated during power generation for charging. Meanwhile, emissions from petrol and diesel cars remained essentially flat between 2024 and 2025.
The overall reduction was not driven solely by passenger vehicles, as cleaner engines led to lower emissions across all other road categories, including buses, motorcycles, and mopeds. Mopeds registered the largest percentage drop compared to the previous year, though their contribution remains negligible, representing just 0.2 per cent of total road traffic emissions in 2025.
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