Urban SUVs driving huge growth in CO2 emissions: IEA

The undying popularity of sport-utility vehicles has made them the second-biggest contributor to the growth of global CO2 emissions in recent years, just behind the power sector, the head of the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

"In 2010, 18 per cent of all car sales in the world were SUVs. In 2018, more than 40 per cent of all cars sold in the world are SUVs!" Fatih Birol told an electric energy conference in Paris.

Demand for the heavy, fuel-guzzling vehicles is soaring in the US and Europe as well as in China, India and other developing countries, where they are particularly prized as status symbols, according to an IEA report released this week.

And despite often having four-wheel drive, SUVs are mainly used by urban drivers -- the steepest climb they face is probably out of a parking garage.

SUVs spewed some 700 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from 2010 to 2018, nearly half the amount produced by the power sector, the IEA report said.

They surpassed