Compendium on Greenhouse Gas Baselines and Monitoring: Passenger and Freight Transport

The development of effective transport climate strategies to implement appropriate and cost-effective mitigation actions rests upon the availability of comprehensive data and the application of sound assessment methods for emission reduction potentials. Unfortunately, many countries lack comprehensive transport emission inventories and mitigation scenario analysis to inform sound climate action planning. One effort to build capacity in this area is the development of the Compendium on GHG Baselines and Monitoring.

This volume of the compendium explores technological and behavioural mitigation approaches to reducing GHG emissions from passenger and freight transport. It provides an overview of approaches on GHG quantification in the transport sector, followed by a reader guide to the mitigation action sections. Broadly, mitigation actions fall into four categories:

• Avoiding journeys where possible – achieved by actions such as changing urban form, improving freight logistics systems, substituting information and communication technologies (ICT) for travel, etc.;
• Modal shift to lower-carbon systems – achieved mainly by increasing investment in public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure;
• Improving the energy intensity of travel per passenger kilometre or ton kilometre – by improving vehicle and engine performance, or overall transport system performance;
• Reducing carbon intensity of fuels by replacing oilbased fossil fuels with natural gas, biomethane or biofuels, or electricity or hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources.

The report includes chapters focused on mass transit investments; comprehensive urban transport programmes and plans; vehicle efficiency improvement programmes; alternative fuels incentives; regulation and production; inter-urban rail infrastructure; shifting mode of freight transport from road to rail or water; national fuel economy standards and fuel pricing policies.