Transportation within the city is one of the key contributors to global heating. Urban passenger transport represents around 10 percent of all of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and emissions have been increasing steadily.
A new report finds that more needs to be done within the cities of the world in addition to nudging the general public into adopting electric vehicles and supporting this through the provision of more electric charging points. Despite the most robust measures, full electrification of all vehicles plus complete electrical grid decarbonization is highly unlikely to fully replace internal combustion engine vehicles by 2050.
This means other actions are needed and these need to be enacted by urban planners with the support of political leaders. The additional measures required will include mass transit; plus, the encouragement of cycling and walking by the city populace. National governments will also need to be involved to address issues like land use allocation.
The report comes from the Institute for Transportation Development Policy (ITDP) and the University of California, Davis.
The report, which it titled: “The Compact City Scenario—Electrified,” contends by applying scientific data and analysis that only the full raft of policies will be sufficient to lower cumulative greenhouse gas emissions from urban passenger transport by 59 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050.
A combination of electric vehicles, improved and expanded public transport, cycle paths and safer streets for walking will reduce the sector’s emissions by about 50 percent across a 30-year period. This is the minimum required level by the transport sector for reducing its contribution to climate change.
Looking at the balanced score card, vehicle electrification to scale can lower cumulative 44 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050. To add to this, more compact cities the facilitate walking, bicycling and public transport can lower emissions by 33 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. The compact city concept means that every amenity, from work to shopping to leisure is within each reach of each citizen, making journeys by bike or by walking readily achievable.
However, these reductions will be partly offset by increasing urban density. According to Heather Thompson, CEO of ITDP: “We need electrification, but we will not meet our 1.5°C target if we focus on electric vehicles alone.”
Thompson says that citizens also need to get used to driving less, given the impact of the generation of electricity that electric vehicles need is not necessarily clean energy. This is where the compact city initiative can significantly contribute through public transit, cycleways and compact neighborhoods. Each is designed to reduce reliance upon motor vehicles.
