• World Health Organization Charter on Transportation, Environment, and Health

• U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol
  
  
• Climate Change Information Sheet 30: Data on greenhouse gas emissions and sources
  • Climate Change Information Sheet 26: New transportation technologies and policies -- "... measures to improve general traffic control and restrict the use of motor vehicles have reduced energy use in some areas by as much as 20–40%; ... Cities can also promote walking, bicycling, and car pooling by limiting automobile access to certain roads, increasing the fees for public parking, and converting existing roads into bicycle lanes, bus-access roads, or "High Occupancy Vehicle" (HOV) lanes during peak hours. The introduction of ... improved network designs, especially in urban areas with a high density of vehicles during peak travel hours, can also boost efficiency.
    
    
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions, in Ch. 3, Trends & Forecasts, of the 1997 Federal Highway Cost Allocation Study Final Report, FHWA -- "Most scientists believe that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will cause global warming. Consequences of global warming include (1) changes in agricultural outputs due to changes in rainfall patterns and temperatures, (2) an increase in sea level as ice caps in northern latitudes and Antarctica begin to melt, and (3) changes in heating and cooling requirements. The [U.N.] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that it could not endorse any particular range of values for the marginal damage of CO2 emissions on climate change, but noted that published estimates range between $5 and $125 ($1990 U.S.) per metric ton of carbon emitted now. The IPCC noted, however, that this range of estimates does not represent the full range of uncertainty and that estimates are based on simplistic models that have limited representations of the actual climatic processes. The wide range of damage estimates reflects variations in model scenarios, discount rates and other assumptions. The Energy Information Agency estimates that 380.4 million metric tons of carbon were emitted by motor vehicles in 1995 which would translate into a range of total costs of from $1.9 billion to $47 billion. The IPCC emphasizes that estimates of the social costs of climate change have a wide range of uncertainty because of limited knowledge of impacts, uncertain future technological and socio economic developments, and the possibility of catastrophic events or surprises. Because of the tremendous uncertainty in climate change costs, no estimates of costs related to highway transportation are developed for this study."
  
  
• Report to the President on Federal Energy Research and Development for the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century, by the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) Panel on Energy Research and Development, 11/97 -- many topics relevant to transportation, energy use, and GHG and other emissions throughout -- see, e.g., Ch. 4: Fossil Energy discussion of carbon dioxide sequestration (or removal) and prediction of impact of energy production technologies on CO₂ generation in Ch. 7: Cross-Cutting Issues and Synthesis.
  
  
• CO2 Capture, Reuse, and Storage Technologies for Mitigating Global Climate Change, by Herzog, H., Drake, E. and Adams, E. A White Paper, M.I.T., 1997 -- the primary reference noted by PCAST on this issue states "In viewing the spectrum of response to global climate change, there are a number of relatively low CO2 mitigation technologies, sometimes termed "least regrets". They include improving energy supply and end-use efficiency, switching from coal or oil to gas where possible, forestation, and inexpensive renewable energy applications. The major drawback of this group of technologies is their limited impact. They may be sufficient to meet short-term goals, but there is a general belief that they will not be able to solve the problem in the mid- and long-term. In light of their limited reduction potential, additional, but more costly mitigation techologies must be considered, specifically CO2 capture and sequestration, nuclear power, and large-scale renewable energy production. All three of these mitigation technologies have the potential to substantially reduce CO2 emissions at comparable costs, yet all three suffer impediments (e.g., nuclear must solve issues of safety and public acceptance and renewable energy costs must decrease). Since at least one of these options (if not all three) will be required to stabilize atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases in the mid- to long-term, it is prudent to examine all three. ..."
  
  
• Towards Meeting CO2 Emission Targets: The Role of Carbon Dioxide Removal, the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies -- concludes "Fossil fuels account for 85% of today's energy supply. It is unlikely that this can be reduced drastically in a short period without serious economic damage. Therefore, to lower carbon dioxide emissions to a sustainable level, a long-term reduction strategy must be developed, taking into account the use of fossil fuels. To this end, a broad-based research programme is required to explore a diverse spectrum of options valid for multiple time frames. Carbon Dioxide Removal can be, and may have to be, one of the elements in such a strategy. First analyses indicate that Carbon Dioxide Removal can be applied within the pursuit of sustainability development. The application of Carbon Dioxide Removal is only meaningful when it is embedded in a policy that focuses on the development of energy sources and technologies producing little or no carbon dioxide; it should not prohibit this development."
  
  
• The Role of Transportation Technologies in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, prepared for Ontario Round Table on Environment and Economy by Pilorusso Research & Consulting Inc.9/30/95 includes the following table (their Table 3.1):
  
  Total Fuel-Cycle Emissions from Gasoline and from Alternative and Replacement Fuels

  	From	From Alternative and Replacement Fuels, Relative to Gasoline
  Emissions	Gasoline	MTBE1	Ethanol2	LPG	CNG	M85	Electric3
  Greenhouse Gases4
  Water Vapor	Yes	More	More	More	More	More	Less
  Carbon Dioxide (CO2)5	Yes	Less	Less	Less	Less	Less	( )5
  Methane	Yes	Equal	Equal	More	More	Equal	Less
  Nitrous Oxide (N2O)	Yes	( )6	( )6	( )6	( )6	( )6	( )6
  Carbon Monoxide (CO)	Yes	Less	Equal/Less7	Less	Less	Equal	Less
  Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)	Yes	Equal	More/Equal7	Equal	Equal	Equal	( )6
  Nonmethane Organic Compounds8
  Methanol	No	More	No	No	No	More	No
  Ethanol	No	No	More	No	No	No	No
  Formaldehyde	Yes	More	More	Equal	Equal	More	Less
  Acetaldehyde	Yes	Less	Equal	Less	Equal	Equal	Less
  Ethane	Yes	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Less
  Total Ozone Precursors9	Yes	Less	More/Less10	Less	Less	Less	Less
  Sulfur Oxides11	Yes	Less	Less	No	No	Less	More
  Particulate Matter12	Yes	Less	Less	Less	No	No	More

  
  1. Consumed with the gasoline in which it is blended (e.g., oxygenated gasoline and RFG)
  2. Includes ethanol in oxygenated gasoline, RFG and gasohol, and ethanol as E85
  3. Life-cycle emissions from electric vehicles depend on the utility boiler feedstock; these projections assume that the feedstock is usually coal, as more than half of electricity today is generated from coal (in the United States).
  4. Greenhouse emission impacts are highly dependent on the feedstock used for fuel production.
  5. CO2 Emissions vary widely. In some cases, emissions could be either higher or lower than gasoline, depending on the feedstock and method of production.
  6. Results are not provided because emissions vary widely, depending on the engines compression, temperature, and fuel/oxygen mix.
  7. More for splash-blended gasohol with higher Reid vapor pressure; equal for gasohol with controlled Reid vapor pressure (not splash-blended) and for E85/E100.
  8. Methane and ethane are just two of hundreds of volatile organic compounds. Others, such as hydrocarbons from unburned fuel or partial combustion, are not reported here.
  9. Ozone precursors include NOx, CO2, and nonmethane organic compounds.
  10. More if splash-blended gasohol, but less if specially formulated gasohol or E85/E100.
  11. This category includes sulfones. While most greenhouse gases contribute to global warming, the sulfates cool the atmosphere. Among the transportation fuels, sulfur oxides are emitted mostly from diesel fuel.
  12. Most particulate matter emissions in the transportation sector come from diesel fuel

  Original source: Compiled by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Mobile Sources, based on the following references: Chang, Tai Y., Robert. H. Hammerle, Steven M. Japar, and Irving T. Salmeen, "Alternative Transportation Fuels and Air Quality", Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 25, No. 7 (1991), pp. 1190-1197; Argonne National Laboratory, Emissions of Greenhouse Gases from the Use of Transportation Fuels and Electricity (Argonne, IL), November 1993; Sperling, Daniel, New Transportation Fuels; A Strategic Approach to Technological Change (Berkeley, CA; University of California Press), 1988; U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Replacing Gasoline; Alternative Fuels for Light-Duty Vehicles, (September, 1990); U.S. Department of Energy, Assessment of Costs and Benefits of Flexible and Alternative Fuel Use in the U.S. Transportation Sector, Technical Report 7: Environmental, Health, and Safety Concerns, (October, 1991).

  Source: Reprinted from: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Alternatives to Traditional Transportation Fuels, 1993, DOE/EIA-0585(93), January, 1995.

• CO2 & Cars, EU -- points to several relevant articles and graphs including
  • Introduction: the EU's strategy on CO2 from passenger cars
    
    (Association des Constructeurs Européens d'Automobiles)
    
    
• From the US DOT BTS TranStats
  
  
• From the US DOT BTS Environmental Trends and the U.S. Transportation System
  
  
  
  
• From the Transportation Energy Data Book, DOE Office of Transportation Technologies:
  
  
• U.S. EPA's Climate Change page
  
  
• The Commission adopts Communication on Climate Change, European Commission
  
  
• Commission outlines measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transport, European Commission (see comments for this entry under Value-Priced Express Lanes in this Library)
  
  
• An Interpretative Summary of the 1997 Asilomar Conference on Policies for Fostering Sustainable Transportation Technologies, Danilo J. Santini, Center for Transportation Research, Argonne National Laboratory -- focus on air pollution, reducing CO2 emissions and oil use, the future, recent counterproductive trends, congestion, and habitat loss.
  
  

• Summary Assessment of the Safety, Health, Environmental and System Risks of Alternative Fuel, BTS (link provided by Jim MacKenzie)
  
  
• Diesel or Natural Gas? New Harvard Study Finds Environmental Pros and Cons with Both, Harvard School of Public Health (link provided by Ian McFadden, UTU)
  
  
• Exhausted by Diesel: How America's Dependence on Diesel Engines Threatens Our Health, NRDC and the Coalition for Clean Air (link provided by Jim MacKenzie)
  
  
• Health Effects of Air Pollution: Diesel and Automobile Exhaust, Physicians for Social Responsibility (link provided by Jim MacKenzie)
  
  
• Diesel-Electric Hybrid Buses: Addressing the Technical and Public Health Issues, NRDC & UCS
  

• Ch. 3, Trends & Forecasts, of the 1997 Federal Highway Cost Allocation Study Final Report, FHWA -- discusses, in addition to the costs of greenhouse gas emissions as noted above, the costs of air pollution, noise, crash fatalities, injuries, and property damage, water pollution, waste disposal of scrapped vehicles, tires, and oil, vibration effects on structures, the effects of roads as barriers to non-motorized travel, loss of parklands and natural habitats, environmental impacts during construction, free parking, sprawl, national energy security, and congestion costs to other highway users.
  
  
• The Annualized Social Cost of Motor-Vehicle Use in the U.S. Summary and Full Report, Mark Delucchi (Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis), 6/98 -- "The analysis indicates that although 'unpaid' social costs of vehicle use are large, they are not as great as previous studies had indicated. Depending upon how one values certain costs, it was found that motor vehicle users pay 68% to 82% of the total cost of owning and operating vehicles."
  
  
• Urban Transportation, Kenneth A. Small (UC Irvine) & Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez (Harvard) -- provides social costs for greenhouse gases: "estimates of damage from greenhouse gas emissions are speculative given the extreme scientific uncertainty and the very long-term nature of the effects -- 3.1 cents per vehicle mile for an auto with the 1992 U.S. average fuel economy. [Small and Kazimi (1995), p. 28]"; air pollution costs: health costs from local air pollution caused by the average on-road automobile in the Los Angeles region in 1992 to be 3 cents per vehicle-mile using middle-range assumptions. Costs of truck emissions are higher by a factor of 16"; congestion costs: time lost and extra fuel consumption amount to $16B/y [Lindley (1989)] for the U.S. as a whole, a figure that would be considerably higher today; accidents: 16.4 cents per vehicle-mile [Miller (1993)] in fatalities, injuries, property damage, and time delays, but not counting insurance administrative costs." [see text for more detail]
  
  
• Other social and environmental costs (construction ahead)

1. programs for improved public transit;
2. HOV and bus lanes (construction of and conversion of existing lanes to);
3. employer based transportation management plans, including incentives;
4. trip-reduction ordinances;
5. traffic flow improvement programs that reduce emissions;
6. parking facilities for multiple occupancy vehicle programs or transit service;
7. vehicle use restrictions in downtown or other high emission areas, especially during peak use periods;
8. programs providing for all forms of high-occupancy and shared ride services;
9. programs limiting portions of roads or sections of metropolitan areas to non-motorized vehicular use or pedestrian use (both temporal and spatial restrictions);
10. bicycle use incentives in both private and public areas;
11. idling restrictions;
12. cold-start emission restrictions (in accordance with Title II);
13. employer-sponsored programs to permit flexible work schedules;
14. programs and restrictions to promote non-single occupant automobile travel as part of the transportation planning and development efforts of a locality (new shopping centers, special events and other centers of vehicle activity included);
15. programs for new construction of and major reconstructions of paths, tracks, or areas solely for the use by pedestrian or non-motorized means of transportation when economically feasible and in the public interest; and
16. programs to encourage the voluntary removal from use and the marketplace of pre-1980 model year light duty vehicles and pre-1980 model light duty trucks.

• See also these research organizations, etc.