The KPMG publication shows that an estimated volume of over 46 thousand tonnes of CO2 per year are emitted by road vehicles while waiting for border control as a result of the postponement of Romania’s and Bulgaria’s admission to Schengen. This translates into a need for over 311 thousand mature trees to sequester the associated border waiting carbon emissions, and is equivalent to over 56 million kwh of coal based electricity.
The climate impact is far greater, if we consider that both Romania and Bulgaria were given the green light by the European Parliament to join the Schengen area in 2011. If the estimation of the impact over one year derived through this publication were to be extrapolated over a period of 11 years, considering all other things being equal, the result would lead to an estimate of over 500 thousand tCO2 emissions, equivalent to over 600 GWh of electricity produced from coal sources.
