Coupling Activity-Based Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment—A Proof-of-Concept Study on Cross-Border Commuting in Luxembourg

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in 2010 the transport sector was responsible for 23% of the total energy-related CO2 emissions (6.7 GtCO2) worldwide. Policy makers in Luxembourg are well-aware of the challenges and are setting ambitious objectives at country level...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2019-08, Vol.11 (15), p.4067
Main Authors: Baustert, Paul, Navarrete Gutiérrez, Tomás, Gibon, Thomas, Chion, Laurent, Ma, Tai-Yu, Mariante, Gabriel Leite, Klein, Sylvain, Gerber, Philippe, Benetto, Enrico
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air pollution
Carbon dioxide
Case studies
Climate change
Commuting
Emissions
Evaluation
Infrastructure
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Light rail transportation
Mobility
Modelling
Objectives
Outdoor air quality
Population
Public transportation
Sustainability
Transportation planning
Transportation systems
Travel
Vehicles
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Summary:According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in 2010 the transport sector was responsible for 23% of the total energy-related CO2 emissions (6.7 GtCO2) worldwide. Policy makers in Luxembourg are well-aware of the challenges and are setting ambitious objectives at country level for the mid and long term. However, a framework to assess environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective on the scale of transport policy scenarios, rather than individual vehicles, is lacking. We present a novel framework linking activity-based modeling with life cycle assessment (LCA) and a proof-of-concept case study for the French cross-border commuters working in Luxembourg. Our framework allows for the evaluation of specific policies formulated on the trip level as well as aggregated evaluation of environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective. The results of our proof-of-concept-based case study suggest that only a combination of: (1) policy measures improving the speed and coverage of the public transport system; (2) policy measures fostering electric mobility; and (3) external factors such as de-carbonizing the electricity mix will allow to counteract the expected increase in impacts due to the increase of mobility needs of the growing commuting population in the long term.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su11154067