A consequential framework to quantify the climate impacts of passenger travel

Alexander Bigazzi

Environment and Planning B, 2025, vol. 52, issue 6, 1282-1290

Abstract: Transportation analyses rely almost exclusively on attributional carbon accounting methods, which can distort the ‘carbon footprint’ of passenger travel and estimated effects of mitigation strategies. This commentary aims to facilitate a transition to consequential carbon accounting in transportation, a sector that contributes a large and growing share of global greenhouse gas emissions. A conceptual framework for consequential accounting of the climate impacts from passenger travel is proposed, which requires characterization of a counterfactual. An analytical framework is then developed to apply the consequential framework. Finally, research directions are described to advance consequential carbon accounting methods in transportation analysis.

Keywords: Greenhouse gases; emissions; transportation; life cycle assessment; consequential accounting; carbon footprint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23998083251325925 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:6:p:1282-1290

DOI: 10.1177/23998083251325925

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning B
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().