Climate change is one of the biggest challenges that our society faces today. Concerning global warming, the long-term temperature effect from current emissions is mostly determined by CO2 and the transport sector accounts for 23% of the global energy-related CO2 emissions. Therefore, a shift towards low-carbon mobility can indeed have a significant effect on reducing carbon emissions, which is a necessary step to reduce global warming in the next decades, under the current scenario of widespread and intensifying climate change (IPCC, 2021).
In the present research, we aim at estimating CO2 emissions for different modes of transport, in order to have a glimpse at the marginal effect of modal shifts that may be induced by sustainability policies to encourage the use of low-carbon mode. We will consider the full life cycle of each travel alternative. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) evaluates energy use and environmental impacts of a product or a service, taking into account all contributions enabling its existence, use and disposal. In the case of travel modes, LCA includes vehicle manufacturing and maintenance, transport from the point of manufacture to the point of use, active vehicle operation, inactive vehicle operation, infrastructure (construction, operation and maintenance), fuel or energy production and vehicle and infrastructure end‐of‐life treatment. The LCA has been recently expanded to include internal combustion engine vehicles, electric vehicles and shared-mobility platforms based on cars, bicycles, electric bicycles and electric scooters (OECD/ITF, 2020, Ho and Tirachini, 2022) and to estimate changes in carbon emissions by persons who change the mode of transport for different travel purposes (Brand et al., 2021).
In this thesis, a full LCA will be developed for different travel alternatives for urban transport in the Netherlands, including active and motorised transport, private alternatives, public transport (bus and rail modes) and new shared mobility options (shared cars, shared bicycles, shared scooters, ride-hailing).
References
- Brand, C., Götschi, T., Dons, E., Gerike, R., Anaya-Boig, E., Avila-Palencia, I., de Nazelle, A., Gascon, M., Gaupp-Berghausen, M., Iacorossi, F., Kahlmeier, S., Int Panis, L., Racioppi, F., Rojas-Rueda, D., Standaert, A., Stigell, E., Sulikova, S., Wegener, S., Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J. (2021). The climate change mitigation impacts of active travel: Evidence from a longitudinal panel study in seven European cities. Global Environmental Change 67: 102224.
- Ho, C., Tirachini, A. (2022) Mobility-as-A-Service and the Role of Multimodality in the Decarbonization of Urban Passenger Mobility. Available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=4218500
- IPCC (2021). Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
- OECD/ITF (2020). Good to Go? Assessing the Environmental Performance of New Mobility. Corporate Partnership Board Report, International Transport Forum.
Supervision
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