Low Carbon

Question 1

What role has transport played in climate discussions?

Answer 1

Transport has not been centre stage in climate discussions on a global scale. However, from a national scale and particularly an urban scale, it has been a key area of climate policy.

Question 2

What are the key messages from transport community contextualised in COP24/25 Outcomes?

Answer 2

1) Net decarbonisation of the transport sector by 2050 is possible, but will require an immediate and concerted turnaround of global policy action; Make low-carbon transport the default for public sector decision-making.
2) Sustainable transport is necessary for countries to deliver on their NDCs; Climate change cannot be stopped without decarbonising transport.
3) Safe, low carbon, efficient and affordable mobility for all is essential to sustainable human development and must be enabled in all sustainable development policies;
4) Investments in low carbon transport can yield substantial, long-term benefits by increasing social cohesion and equality and reducing disability and deaths.
5) Share knowledge about tested measures that reduce transport emissions; Scale-up research, production and use of zero-emission fuels.

Question 3

How are climate change and air pollution linked?

Answer 3

Operate at different scales
Interlinked - the shift from petrol to diesel for CC reasons lead to current air pollution issues
Emit different gases
Air pollution has helped CC get traction at local scales

Question 4

Describe how road travel is a socio-technical system.

Answer 4

• Culture and symbolic meanings (freedom, individuality)
• Finance rules, interest rates, insurance premiums
• Regulations and policies (traffic rules, emission standards, parking fees)
• Road infrastructure, traffic systems and signalling
• Vehicle
• Fuel infrastructure
• User practices (mobility patterns, preferences, habits)
• Maintenance and distribution networks
• Industry structure

Question 5

How does Urry (2004) describe ‘automobility’?

Answer 5

• Car as the ‘quintessential manufactured object’
• Major item of individual consumption and provides status, easily anthropomorphised
• Powerful complex linkages (technological and social) with other industries (e.g. fuels, repairs, hotels, retail, housing)
• Predominant global form of (quasi-private) mobility, which relegates other forms of mobility (walking, cycling) and reorganises social life
• Dominant culture sustains notions of what is needed for ‘the good life’ (and associated images, symbols etc)
• Single most important cause of environmental resource consumption, reliant on oil, contributing to health & wellbeing, environmental (etc.) concerns.

Question 6

How is automobility locked in/unravelling?

Answer 6

STRONG LOCK-IN:
Culture of the age (individualism, private ownership, etc.)
Precedence of economic rationale
Sunk infrastructure costs; planning patterns that favour commuting
Ageing society: citizens with reduced autonomous mobility capacity
Global automobility growth (e.g. cities of global south)

TENSIONS
Environmental awareness (especially, pressures to reduce GHG emissions)
Interest in sustainable alternatives
Rising fuel prices
Debates on Peak Oil
Congestion, leading to inconvenience and air pollution
Information society (e.g. virtual mobilities)
New forms of mobility-as-a-service
Ageing society (new, specialised demand pockets)
‘Peak Car’ and moves away from automobility (particularly gen Y, urban)

Question 7

How does path dependency of private automobility work?

Answer 7

->
Lock-in to hegemonic mobility practices
->
Saturated infrastructures due to lack of alternatives
->
(Historical) Policy and planning decisions (road building)
->
Transport infrastructure funding and ‘sunk costs’
->

Question 8

How can transport-related energy use be reduced?

Answer 8

Behavioural change
Land use change
Technological change
Institutional change
Regulatory change