Transport emissions fell during the crisis, but are on the rise again

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Transport Emissions

Low Carbon Mobility, Urgent futures and radical transitions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Higham ◽  
Debbie Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Development ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
High Carbon ◽  
Transportation Emissions ◽  
Paris Climate Agreement ◽  
Transport Emissions

More people than ever before are moving more frequently and at accelerating speeds, often for shorter periods of time. These mobilities are largely dependent on unsustainable high-carbon technologies. The continued and accelerating growth of transportation emissions is attributed to changing mobility patterns among the high emitters of hypermobile developed societies, combined with the rapid development of high carbon intensity transport systems in emerging economies. Mitigation of transport emissions remains largely absent from the political agenda, despite growing recognition of the urgent need to address transportation emissions, because it is fundamentally incompatible with neoliberal ideals. The level of decarbonisation required to align regional and global transportation systems with the agreed targets of the Paris Climate Agreement (2015) has proved to be a particularly acute challenge. The Agreement recognises that radical and system-wide transitions toward low carbon mobility are urgently required. It is critically important that the varied social, cultural and geographic contexts of low carbon mobility transitions that are identified in Low Carbon Mobility Transitions are taken up and acted upon to inform the low carbon mobility transformations that are so obviously and urgently required. These insights must inform efforts to ensure the full accountability of transportation emissions, and to ensure that the INDCs that are outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement (2015) are upheld and achieved in full measure.

scholarly journals Reducing Road Transport Emissions in Europe: Investigating A Demand Side Driven Approach †

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7594
Author(s):  
Johannes Enzmann ◽  
Marc Ringel
Keyword(s):  
Road Transport ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Secondary Market ◽  
Demand Side ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Expert Interview ◽  
Transport Emissions

The European Union aims at net-zero emissions by 2050. A key sector to achieve this goal is road transport, where emissions show no signs of reducing but continue to grow. A review of policies undertaken by EU member states and the G20 to reduce transport emissions reveals that both present and planned policies focus on binding supply-side measures, but offer only weak demand-side incentives. To address this imbalance, we developed a downstream, demand-side policy prototype through an expert interview design process. We call the prototype “cap-and-surrender” because it caps road emissions, and then allocates tradable emission allowances to individual vehicles that drivers surrender at each fill-up. Allowance pricing, both by the state and in the secondary market, is designed to incentivize decarbonization of the sector. Though the system would require significant investment, its revenue potential to the state should exceed this investment by several multiples. We discuss the potential economic, environmental and social impacts of the policy, as assessed by European transport experts. We find that the approach can deliver significant transport emission reductions in an effective and economically efficient manner. Through the appropriate design of national allocation rules and a gradual phasing in of cap and surrender, potential negative social consequences can be mitigated, and public acceptance of the policy promoted.

scholarly journals Attributing ozone and its precursors to land transport emissions in Europe and Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 7843-7873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Mertens ◽  
Astrid Kerkweg ◽  
Volker Grewe ◽  
Patrick Jöckel ◽  
Robert Sausen
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Nitrogen Oxides ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Seasonal Cycle ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Model System ◽  
Anthropogenic Emission ◽  
Po Valley ◽  
Transport Emissions

Abstract. Land transport is an important emission source of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds. The emissions of nitrogen oxides affect air quality directly. Further, all of these emissions serve as a precursor for the formation of tropospheric ozone, thus leading to an indirect influence on air quality. In addition, ozone is radiatively active and its increase leads to a positive radiative forcing. Due to the strong non-linearity of the ozone chemistry, the contribution of emission sources to ozone cannot be calculated or measured directly. Instead, atmospheric chemistry models equipped with specific source attribution methods (e.g. tagging methods) are required. In this study we investigate the contribution of land transport emissions to ozone and ozone precursors using the MECO(n) model system (MESSy-fied ECHAM and COSMO models nested n times). This model system couples a global and a regional chemistry climate model and is equipped with a tagging diagnostic. We investigate the combined effect of long-range-transported ozone and ozone which is produced by European emissions by applying the tagging diagnostic simultaneously and consistently on the global and regional scale. We performed two simulations each covering 3 years with different anthropogenic emission inventories for Europe. We applied two regional refinements, i.e. one refinement covering Europe (50 km resolution) and one covering Germany (12 km resolution). The diagnosed absolute contributions of land transport emissions to reactive nitrogen (NOy) near ground level are in the range of 5 to 10 nmol mol−1. This corresponds to relative contributions of 50 % to 70 %. The largest absolute contributions appear around Paris, southern England, Moscow, the Po Valley, and western Germany. The absolute contributions to carbon monoxide range from 30 nmol mol−1 to more than 75 nmol mol−1 near emission hot-spots such as Paris or Moscow. The ozone which is attributed to land transport emissions shows a strong seasonal cycle with absolute contributions of 3 nmol mol−1 during winter and 5 to 10 nmol mol−1 during summer. This corresponds to relative contributions of 8 % to 10 % during winter and up to 16 % during summer. The largest values during summer are confined to the Po Valley, while the contributions in western Europe range from 12 % to 14 %. Only during summer are the ozone contributions slightly influenced by the anthropogenic emission inventory, but these differences are smaller than the range of the seasonal cycle of the contribution to land transport emissions. This cycle is caused by a complex interplay of seasonal cycles of other emissions (e.g. biogenic) and seasonal variations of the ozone regimes. In addition, our results suggest that during events with large ozone values the ozone contributions of land transport and biogenic emissions increase strongly. Here, the contribution of land transport emissions peaks up to 28 %. Hence, our model results suggest that land transport emissions are an important contributor during periods with large ozone values.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document