• Although catalytic converters are effective at removing hydrocarbons and other harmful emissions, they do not reduce the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced when fossil fuels are burnt.
  • Carbon dioxide produced from fossil fuels is one of the greenhouse gases indicated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be a “most likely” cause of global warming.
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stated automobile emissions are a significant and growing cause of global warming, because of their release of nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas over three hundred times more potent than carbon dioxide. The EPA states that motor vehicles contribute approximately 8.2% of anthropogenic nitrous oxide emissions in 2008, from a high of 17.77% in 1998.
  • Nitrous oxide makes up 7.2% of greenhouse gases.
  • An engine equipped with a three-way catalyst must run at the stoichiometric point, which means more fuel is consumed than in a lean-burn engine. This, in turn, means relatively more CO2 emissions from the vehicle. Nevertheless, catalyst-equipped engines produce cleaner exhaust than lean-burn engines.
  • Catalytic converter production requires palladium or platinum; part of the world supply of these precious metals is produced near Norilsk, Russia, where the industry (among others) has caused Norilsk to be added to Time magazine’s list of most-polluted places.