Reducing Climate Impacts In The Transportation Sector

More than 250 experts from around the world gathered at the Asilomar Transportation and Energy Conference in August 2007 to tackle what many agree is the greatest environmental challenge the world faces: climate change. This 11th Biennial Conference, organized under the auspices of the Energy and Alternative Fuels Committees of the U.S. Transportation Research Board, examined key climate change policy issues and strategies to combat climate impacts from the transportation sector, a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions. This book includes chapters by leading presenters at the Asilomar Conference that reflect the most current views of the world’s experts about a critical and rapidly evolving energy and environmental problem. The chapters in this book examine increasing worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases, uncertain oil supply, evolving climate change science, public attitudes toward climate change, and the implications for the U.S. of growth in China, India and elsewhere. They propose methods to reduce growth in vehicle travel through alternative fuel, new technologies, and land use planning. They examine the costs and the potential for greenhouse gas reduction through deployment of advanced technology and alternative fuels and propose strategies to motivate consumers to buy fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles, including heavy duty trucks.

Transportation contributes to roughly a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions, and as a growing sector of the economy, its contribution to climate change, if remained unchanged, could even grow. This is particularly true in the developing world, where the growth rates of air and ship transport are expected to exceed those of the EU, and worldwide objectives to curb greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by sixty to eighty percent could be placed in serious jeopardy. This book addresses the key issues of controlling transportation growth and identifying and implementing measures that would significantly reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from transport while maintaining its vital role in generating prosperity and mobility for future generations. This book describes the challenge that transport constitutes today as well as its role in the future for climate policy. It will discuss and provide hands-on suggestions for transportation policy that will mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions from transport. The book is organized into five parts. Part One presents an overview of transport and climate policy in the context of the recent economic crisis. Part Two examines the problems and proposed solutions for curbing emissions from transport in industrialized countries while Parts Three and Four deal with the developing world, with a particular focus on India and China. Part Five discusses tested solutions and provides policy recommendations making this book of interest to a broad audience of both policy-makers and academics concerned with the role of transport in reducing global climate change.

Sustainable mobility has long been sought after in cities around the world, particularly in industrialised countries, but also increasingly in the emerging cities in Asia. Progress however appears difficult to make as the private car, still largely fuelled by petrol or diesel, remains the mainstream mode of use. Transport is the key sector where carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions seem difficult to reduce. Transport, Climate Change and the City seeks to develop achievable and low transport CO2 emission futures in a range of international case studies, including in London, Oxfordshire, Delhi, Jinan and Auckland. The aim is that the scenarios as developed, and the consideration of implementation and governance issues, can help us plan for and achieve attractive future travel behaviours at the city level. The alternative is to continue with only incremental progress against CO2 reduction targets, to ‘sleepwalk’ into climate change difficulties, oil scarcity, a poor quality of life, and to continue with the high traffic casualty figures. The topic is thus critical, with transport viewed as central to the achievement of the sustainable city and reduced CO2 emissions.

This topical volume covers the intersection between transport and climate change, with papers from the 'Transport & Climate Change' session of the RGS-IBG conference in London, September 2010. It considers the role of transport modes at varying spatial dimensions and a range of perspectives on the relationship between transport and climate change.

While intercity passenger transport counts for about 2% of the total passenger transport volume the share of the total passenger kilometers traveled is estimated more than one third. In many countries the major part of intercity transport is performed by car and air and as a result, the contribution to the carbon footprint is substantially higher than the share of overall passenger transport performance. This creates a challenge to develop a sustainable organization of intercity transport which requires a true joint effort of policy makers, industry sectors and households. This presupposes that all options for reducing the carbon footprint of the transport modes – car, air and rail – are fully exploited through modern propulsion technology, use of regenerative energy and efficient organization of transport processes. Basic conditions for meeting this requirement are an incentive compatible public framework of regulation, taxation, charging and education, the private willingness to adjust to new behavioral patterns and a consequent push of technological progress towards energy and CO2 savings. This book begins with an international comparison of intercity transport and the current state of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) of this transport segment. A focus is given to comparing the situation in the EU, the US and Japan while describing the more recent development of intercity transport in China, followed by an analysis of intercity transport policies and their contribution to meet the global climate change issues. This book will be of interest to researchers in transportation economics and policy, as well as civil engineering and planning.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing global society. The debate over what to do is confounded by the uncertain relationship between increasing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and the impact of those changes on nature and human civilization. Driving Climate Change will provide professionals and students alike with the latest information regarding greenhouse emissions while presenting the most up-to-date techniques for reducing these emissions. It will investigate three broad strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: 1) reducing motorized travel, 2) shifting to less energy intensive modes, and 3) changing fuel and propulsion technologies. Findings will be presented by the leaders in the field with contributions from professors, researchers, consultants and engineers at the most prominent institutions - commercial, academic and federal - dealing with environmental research and policy. Includes a comprehensive evaluation of current industrial practice Provides technologically sound and manageable techniques for engineers, scientists and designers Incorporates guidelines for a sustainable future

The Fed. Transit Admin. (FTA) collects and analyzes data from across the country on public transportation (PT) fuel use, vehicles deployed, rides taken, etc. These data provides valuable insight into the impacts of auto, truck, SUV, and PT travel on the production of greenhouse gas emissions. There are significant greenhouse gas emission savings by using PT. This paper presents an analysis of the data and frames it in a broader context. It concludes with a description of FTA actions that address climate change. PT can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by: Providing a low emissions alternative to driving; Facilitating compact land use, reducing the need to travel long distances; and Minimizing the carbon footprint of transit oper.

Transportation contributes to roughly a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions, and as a growing sector of the economy, its contribution to climate change, if remained unchanged, could even grow. This is particularly true in the developing world, where the growth rates of air and ship transport are expected to exceed those of the EU, and worldwide objectives to curb greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by sixty to eighty percent could be placed in serious jeopardy. This book addresses the key issues of controlling transportation growth and identifying and implementing measures that would significantly reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from transport while maintaining its vital role in generating prosperity and mobility for future generations. This book describes the challenge that transport constitutes today as well as its role in the future for climate policy. It will discuss and provide hands-on suggestions for transportation policy that will mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions from transport. The book is organized into five parts. Part One presents an overview of transport and climate policy in the context of the recent economic crisis. Part Two examines the problems and proposed solutions for curbing emissions from transport in industrialized countries while Parts Three and Four deal with the developing world, with a particular focus on India and China. Part Five discusses tested solutions and provides policy recommendations making this book of interest to a broad audience of both policy-makers and academics concerned with the role of transport in reducing global climate change.