Specific climate impact of passenger and freight transport

Details

• Creators:
  Borken-Kleefeld, Jens ; Bernsten, Terje ; Fuglestvedt, Jan
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Climate Change Environmental Impacts Freight Transportation Global Warming Greenhouse Effect Passenger Transportation
• Resource Type:
  Journal Article
• Corporate Publisher:
  American Chemical Society
• NTL Classification:
  NTL-FREIGHT-FREIGHT ; NTL-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT ; NTL-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT-Environment Impacts ; NTL-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT-Transit Energy and Environment ; NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-RAIL TRANSPORTATION ; NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail Energy and Environment ; NTL-PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION-Transit Energy and Environment
• Abstract:
  Emissions of short-lived species contribute significantly to
  
  the climate impact of transportation. The magnitude of the effects
  
  varies over time for each transport mode. This paper compares
  
  first the absolute climate impacts of current passenger and
  
  freight transportation. Second, the impacts are normalized with
  
  the transport work performed and modes are compared.
  
  Calculations are performed for the integrated radiative forcing
  
  and mean temperature change, for different time horizons
  
  and various measures of transport work. An unambiguous
  
  ranking of the specific climate impact can be established for
  
  freight transportation, with shipping and rail having lowest and
  
  light trucks and air transport having highest specific impact
  
  for all cases calculated. Passenger travel with rail, coach or twoand
  
  three-wheelers has on average the lowest specific
  
  climate impact also on short time horizons. Air travel has the
  
  highest specific impact on short-term warming, while on longterm
  
  warming car travel has an equal or higher impact per
  
  passenger-kilometer.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:1245fa68d23f84b90c522daa63457369bac703efaecd0852c6bb4d947ee8fda3
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/18411/dot_18411_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.66 MB ]