Exploring Transport Consumption-Based Emissions: Spatial Patterns, Social Factors, Well-Being, and Policy Implications

Lena Kilian (), Anne Owen, Andy Newing and Diana Ivanova
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Lena Kilian: School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Anne Owen: School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Andy Newing: School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Diana Ivanova: School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-26

Abstract: Recent years have seen an increased interest in demand-side mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the oftentimes spatial nature of emissions research, links to social factors and infrastructure are often not analysed geographically. To reach substantial and lasting emission reductions without further disadvantaging vulnerable populations, the design of effective mitigation policies on the local level requires considerations of spatial and social inequalities as well as the context of well-being. Consequently, we explore spatial variations in the links between consumption-based transport emissions with infrastructural factors, such as workplace distance and public transport density, and with risk-factors of transport poverty, including income, age, ethnicity, mobility constraints in London. We find that linear models report significant spatial autocorrelation at p ≤ 0.01 in their model residuals, indicating spatial dependency. Using geographically weighted regression models improves model fits by an adjusted R 2 value of 9–70% compared to linear models. Here, modelling flight emissions generally sees the lowest improvements, while those models modelling emissions from cars and vans see the highest improvements in model fit. We conclude that using geographically weighted regression to assess the links between social factors and emissions offers insights which global, linear models overlook. Moreover, this type of analysis enables an assessment of where, spatially, different types of policy interventions may be most effective in reducing not only emissions, but transport poverty risks. Patterns of spatial heterogeneity and policy implications of this research are discussed.

Keywords: transport footprints; geographically weighted regression; consumption-based accounting; greenhouse gas emissions; social factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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