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Tackling car emissions in urban areas: Shift, Avoid, Improve

In addition to its potential contribution to reaching climate targets, cycling may generate substantial population-level health benefits through the physical activity it requires. Due to the lack of nationally representative mobility data, the health impact of current levels of cycling is still unknown for France. Relying on a health impact assessment framework and using recent nationally-representative data on mobility, we assessed the health and related economic benefits of cycling in 2018-2019 in France. We show that such benefits remain moderated and fall short when compared to those estimated in other countries with high cycling levels. We argue that cycling in France did not receive the attention and investments it deserves over the past decade and thus represents a missed opportunity for climate action and public health.

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Local environmental organizations and media have recently expressed concerns over air pollution induced by maritime traffic and its potential adverse health effects on the population of Mediterranean port cities. We explore this issue with unique highfrequency data from Marseille, France's largest port for cruise ships, over the 2008-2018 period. Using a new pair-matching algorithm designed for time series data, we create hypothetical randomized experiments and estimate the variation in air pollutant concentrations caused by a short-term increase in cruise vessel traffic. We carry out a randomization-based approach to compute 95% Fisherian intervals (FI) for constant treatment effects consistent with the matched data and the hypothetical intervention. At the hourly level, cruise vessels' arrivals increase concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) by 4.7 µg/m 3 (95% FI: [1.4, 8.0]), of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) by 1.2 µg/m 3 (95% FI: [-0.1, 2.5]), and of particulate matter (PM 10 ) by 4.6 µg/m 3 (95% FI: [0.9, 8.3]). At the daily level, cruise traffic increases concentrations of NO 2 by 1.2 µg/m 3 (95% FI: [-0.5, 3.0]) and of PM 10 by 1.3 µg/m 3 (95% FI: [-0.3, 3.0]). Our results suggest that well-designed hypothetical randomized experiments provide a principled approach to better understand the negative externalities of maritime traffic.

Local environmental organizations and media have recently expressed concerns over air pollution induced by maritime traffic and its potential adverse health effects on the population of Mediterranean port cities. We explore this issue with unique high-frequency data from Marseille, France’s largest port for cruise ships, over the 2008- 2018 period. Using a new pair-matching algorithm designed for time series data, we create hypothetical randomized experiments and estimate the variation in air pollutant concentrations caused by a short-term increase in cruise vessel traffic. We carry out a randomization-based approach to compute 95% Fisherian intervals (FI) for constant treatment effects consistent with the matched data and the hypothetical intervention. At the hourly level, cruise vessels’ arrivals increase concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by 4.7 μg/m³ (95% FI: [1.4, 8.0]), of sulfur dioxide (SO2) by 1.2 μg/m³ (95% FI: [-0.1, 2.5]), and of particulate matter (PM10) by 4.6 μg/m³ (95% FI: [0.9, 8.3]). At the daily level, cruise traffic increases concentrations of NO2 by 1.2 μg/m³ (95% FI: [-0.5, 3.0]) and of PM10 by 1.3 μg/m³ (95% FI: [-0.3, 3.0]). Our results suggest that well-designed hypothetical randomized experiments provide a principled approach to better understand the negative externalities of maritime traffic.