Quantifying Carbon Emission from Campus Transportation: A Case Study in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Abstract

Carbon footprint is a global concern discussed throughout the globe. The daily activities on university campuses cause emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to the increasing amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. This research seeks to determine the CO2 emissions by members of the campus community of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi Campus. This study will also analyse the factors influencing CO2 emission from the vehicles used on the campus. The findings of this study will serve as a basis to propose methods for reducing carbon footprint, especially from the transportation used on the campus. The study is carried out on the UKM campus to gather the data on the travel activity on the campus, where the members of the campus community serve as the study population. The DEFRA Model is used to calculate the CO2 emission and the multivariable linear regression model is used to identify the factors influencing CO2 emission. In the car category, petrol cars with 2.0L engine have the highest mean CO2 emission of 1181.0932 kg CO2/year/capita. In the motorcycle category, petrol motorcycles with engine capacity larger than 500cc recorded the highest emission of 999.1072 kg CO2/year/capita. The CO2 emissions by both categories are below the national mean carbon dioxide emission value of 7900 kg CO2/year/capita recorded by the 2019 National Transport Policy and the mean carbon dioxide emissions of 5400 kg CO2/year/capita in high-income countries. In this study, the critical factors influencing the daily and annual CO2 emissions are the mode of transportation, type of fuel, and travel distance