As an effective measure for environmental impact associated with the waste emissions, exergy is used to unify the assessment of the waste gases of CO, NOx, and SO2 emitted from fossil fuel consumption by the transportation system in China. An index of emission exergy intensity defined as the ratio of the total chemical exergy of the emissions and the total converted turnover of the transportation is proposed to quantify the environmental impact per unit of traffic service. Time series analyses are presented for the emission exergy and emission exergy intensity of the whole Chinese transportation as well as for its four sectors of highways, railways, waterways and civil aviation from 1978 to 2004. For the increasing emission exergy with CO taking the largest share, the highways sector was the major contributor, while the railways sector initially standing as the second main contributor developed into the least after 1995. The temporal and structural variations of the emissions are illustrated against the transition of the transportation system in a socio-economic perspective, with emphasis on policy-making implications. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.