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THE IMPACT OF TRANSPORT ON CLIMATE
CHANGE FROM A EUROPEAN
PERSPECTIVE
Carme Miralles-Guasch & Louis Lemkow
Transport, energy and emissions
• The transport sector is one of the major
consumers of energy, surpassing other
sectors such as domestic or industrial
consumption
• It is one of the main sources of gas
emissions which have produced the
greenhouse effect and prompted climate
change
EU Policy
• In response to this situation, a fundamental
objective being actively pursued by the
European Union is to disassociate the transport
sector from GNP
• The objective: economic development in the EU
member states without this entailing a parallel
increase in movements of people and goods via
mechanical transport means
• Sustainable development is expressed through
a policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
produced by transport
Transport and energy data
• In the EU transport accounts for over one
third of final energy consumption
• energy consumption is not only growing in
absolute terms, but also is directly related
to tons and people transported
Growth in terms of GNP, energy
consumption and passenger
transport
Spain
• In Spain the trend is similar: in 2005
transport accounted for 37.5% of final
energy consumption, with industry
accounting for 35.4% and 27.1%
attributable to other economic activities
• Industry has reduced energy consumption
levels
Energy costs of transport
• The energy costs involved in
manufacturing private vehicles & the fuel
they consume, motorised transport is the
sector which consumes most.
• At the other end of the scale the bicycle
accounts for the lowest costs while public
transport energy consumption figures rank
around midway between the two.
Greenhouse gases and transport
• Although C02 is not the only element
responsible for the greenhouse effect, it is
the one which has the biggest impact:
CO2 accounts for almost 97%, N20 for
2.8% and CH4 for 0.4%
• There is a close link between energy
consumed and C02 emissions
Impact of commuting
• The very high numbers of journeys using
private motorised transport, most of them
commutes to and from work, are to a large
degree responsible for high gas
emissions.
Contribution of transport to climate
change
The Problem of the Private Vehicle
• Journeys made in private vehicles generate
higher gas emissions in relation to distance
travelled in comparison with journeys made by
public transport.
• Despite the fact that in recent years we have
seen improvements in engines and fuel quality,
these have been minimised by the increase in
total vehicles on the road and journeys made,
the introduction of more powerful engines and
lower vehicle occupancy
Reducing Impacts
• Reducing the impact of the transport
sector on greenhouse gas emissions,
above all regarding CO2 emissions, is
founded on three basic principles:
• Efficiency,
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
Short term strategies:
internalising costs
• The main goal behind these policies is to
reorient private vehicle users towards other
ways of travelling that are more efficient from an
energy consumption point of view
• Internalising costs would reduce the present
advantages of using private means for making
trips, many of which are indirect and not
immediately visible
• There are also cases in which given the
characteristics of certain spaces it is becoming
more necessary or advisable to introduce direct
road traffic restrictions.
Medium and long-term
strategies: reducing costs
• explore whatever possibilities there are to
restrict the present trend in territorial
planning to produce mono-functional and
dispersed spaces which establish
distances between different activities
• From dispersed urban model to compact
model, thus shortening travel distance and
time
THE IMPACT OF TRANSPORT ON CLIMATE CHANGE FROM A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE
Carme Miralles-Guasch & Louis Lemkow
Many thanks for your attention!!