Towards a Low Emission Transport System: Evaluating the Public Health and Environmental Benefits

Abstract

Climate change mitigation strategies offer significant societal co-benefits such as improvement in public health, air quality, local economy, and even safety. By considering these co-benefits during the transportation planning process, local governments would be able to link their local appreciate mitigation actions into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where diverse objectives should be achieved simultaneously. This study first clarifies the co-benefits approach to climate change mitigation in the transport system, by introducing an integrated multiple-impact framework known as A-S-I (Avoid-Shift-Improve) to evaluate the co-benefits. Thereafter, it applies the quantitative modeling approach to assess public health and environmental co-benefits of the implementation of the Tehran Transportation Master Plan, “the TTMP” in the city of Tehran, Iran, which includes targeted interventions such as shifting from private vehicles to the urban transport system, improving vehicle technologies and introducing alternative fuels. The results from the application of “the TTMP” reveal a significant reduction of CO2 and other local air pollutant emissions by 12.9 and 1.4 million tons, respectively, prevention of about 10,000 mortality cases, and more than USD 35 million savings by 2030.

Exploring the role of electric vehicles in Africa's energy transition: A Nigerian case study

“…Accordingly, the mitigation potential of EVs is greatest when EVs can promote the use of VRES instead of fossil fuels. This potential is greatest when there is substantial penetration of VRES, contributing to better air quality and improved energy security ( Farzaneh et al., 2018 ). Monetizing these additional benefits can make EVs even more cost-effective beyond the present results.…”

Measuring the Impact of Brazilian Transport Systems on the 2030 Agenda Goals

“…Several studies highlight the promotion of sustainable transport systems for the sustainability of cities and the population's well-being (Gupta & Vagelin, 2016;Mundorf et al, 2018;Farzaneh et al, 2019). Accordingly, the energy matrix, control emissions, and fuel quality need to be modified, and transport has a fundamental role (Cruz & Katz-Gerro, 2016;Bakker et al, 2017;Franco & Tracey, 2019).…”

“…Accordingly, the energy matrix, control emissions, and fuel quality need to be modified, and transport has a fundamental role (Cruz & Katz-Gerro, 2016;Bakker et al, 2017;Franco & Tracey, 2019). Farzaneh et al (2019) state that mitigating climate change in transport may be a main priority on the Political Agenda. Therefore, to meet targets 3.9, 7.2, 7.3, 11.6, and 13.1, a country needs to reduce fossil fuel consumption in the transport sector (role iii).…”

“…Despite its importance, at the time of writing this article, few studies systematized the transport sector's role to reach the goals proposed in the 17 SDGs (Ahmad & Oliveira, 2016;Sdoukopoulos et al, 2019;Chakwizira, 2019). There were also few papers focusing on analyzing advances in the world's transport systems to measure their contribution to sustainable development (Santos & Ribeiro, 2015;Mansourianfar & Haghshenas, 2018;Farzaneh et al, 2019). This lack of research makes it even more complicated for developing countries to meet the goals of between 2010-2019.…”

Air Pollution Health Risk Assessment (AP-HRA), Principles and Applications

“…The urgency of bold and timely Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) coupled with the health, environmental, and economic opportunities has been argued in China and Mongolia [ 41 , 42 ]. These tools help raise public awareness regarding the adverse health impact of low air quality and finally connect governing authorities with scientific research throughout the regulatory process [ 43 , 44 , 45 ]. The HRA tools have been widely used in evaluating air quality policies in the United States [ 46 ] and the European Union [ 47 ].…”