Is sustainable transport policy sustainable?

Jonas Eliasson () and Stef Proost

Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven from KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven

Abstract: The paper challenges part of the sustainable transport literature. Sustainable transport plans often focus on reducing carbon emissions in a specific city, region or country, and this neglects two handicaps of strong unilateral action. The first is that climate is a global commons problem, so a strong binding international climate agreement is unlikely. The second is that a unilateral reduction of oil consumption may be partially, or even completely, offset by market responses – in some circumstances, cumulative emissions may even come earlier (the “green paradox”). When a coalition of the willing reduces oil use in the transport sector, this may delay rather than reduce total emissions. This requires rethinking climate policies for the transport sector: What policies remain cost effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

Date: 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-tre
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https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/457118/1/DPS1417.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: Is sustainable transport policy sustainable? (2015)
Working Paper: Is sustainable transport policy sustainable? (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces14.17

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