via Citylab

This interesting chart was a part of a CityLab article that analyses how Germany is less car dependent than the United States by looking data from comparable cities in each of these nations.  What caught my attention, among the many things, is the difference in the carbon footprint.  In the US, Transport sector alone accounts for 32% of our overall CO2 emissions whereas in Germany it is only 19%.  If we ever get around to implementing a carbon tax, it could fall precipitously but I don’t see that happening anytime soon, given the current political discourse.

The data come from a recent comparison of German and U.S. planning approaches led by transport scholar Ralph Buehler of Virginia Tech. Drilling down to the city level, Buehler and collaborators find more of the same driving trends in an analysis of two large metros from each country: Washington, D.C., and Stuttgart.

Image courtesy: IEA.org

Some interesting nuggets from IEA:

• Since 1990, the domestic transport sector has accounted for the largest share of total final energy consumption, more than 30%, in the 24 OECD countries.
• Within the sector, road transport dominates energy consumption, at 90% in 2011, as shown in this chart above based on the IEA energy efficiency indicators database.
• Further disaggregated data by segment and vehicle type indicate that consumption by passenger cars is a key driver (64%) for road transport, and thus for global energy consumption trends.

Click here to learn more.

Via Atlantic Cities

How do you tell the story about big agenda issues like environmental impact and emissions in a city like New York? One way to do this is by taking all the relevant data you can get and stitching it together in a graphic format that visually demonstrates the scope of the problem.  Let’ s see how its done.  Let’s start with the problem.

Carbon Visuals and the Environmental Defense Fund created an animation showing giant blue balls standing in for New York’s greenhouse-gas emissions in 2010 (the last year data were available). Each sphere represents one ton of carbon-dioxide vapor. Added up, they represent 54 million metric tons of climate-toasting chemicals, which is the amount of emissions that NYC recorded in 2010.  It is quite arresting when you visually see a huge mountain (Everest-sized) of blue balls blanketing your entire city.  Check it out.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtqSIplGXOA&hd=1′]

Related articles

• Visualizing a City’s Prodigious Carbon Emissions
• These Are the Best Data Visualization Vids of Our Massive Carbon Problem
• This Is What New York City’s Carbon Footprint Looks Like
• Visualising carbon emissions and climate change
• Visualizing CO2
• Video: What does NYC’s carbon footprint “look” like?

Prepared by the Office of Planning, Environment and Realty @ Federal Highway Administration
www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/climate_change/

Recent Events and Reports

FHWA‘s Climate Change Vulnerability and Risk Assessment Pilots Completed. Five areas have completed vulnerability and risk assessments of their transportation infrastructure under FHWA’s pilot program to implement a draft framework for climate change vulnerability and risk assessment. Each area took a different approach and contributed significantly to the understanding of potential climate change impacts on their transportation assets, and to the body of knowledge of the transportation community as a whole. FHWA will use the experiences of the pilots to update the draft framework. A very brief description of each pilot:

• WSDOT assessed the infrastructure it owns, including roads, rail, ferry facilities, and airports. They held workshops around the State, presenting information on climate projections and asking maintenance engineers and other employees with intimate familiarity with the assets, “What keeps you up at night?” to help identify current vulnerabilities that may be exacerbated in the future.
• A New Jersey project was led by NJTPA and was supported by an interagency partnership, including the three New Jersey MPOs, NJDOT, NJ Transit, NJ Department of Environmental Protection, and the NJ State Climatologist. The pilot closely followed the three steps of the Conceptual Risk Assessment Model in its analysis of the New Jersey Turnpike/I-95 corridor and the New Jersey Coast.
• The Oahu MPO used an interagency, multidisciplinary two-day workshop to facilitate a climate change dialog and identify five key vulnerable assets for further study. The five assets were then assessed in more detail.
• The University of Virginia developed a priority setting tool to assess how consideration of climate change and other factors may affect project prioritization in a transportation plan. They used the Hampton Roads region as a case study.
• MTC, in partnership with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission and others, led a study of a portion of the Bay, stretching from the Oakland Bay Bridge to the San Mateo Bridge (Alameda County). This study was focused on sea level rise. The project team developed asset risk profiles for a representative list of assets within the study area, including exposure to sea level rise, sensitivity to sea level rise (based on level of use, age, seismic retrofit status, maintenance cost, and liquefaction susceptibility).

For more information see FHWA’s pilots website which includes links to the individual pilot web pages where most of the final reports are posted. Also see recordings of two webinars on the pilots to hear about the projects directly from the project leads:

• In FHWA Pilots Webinar I, Becky Lupes from FHWA gives an overview of the vulnerability and risk assessment framework, Jeff Perlman from NJTPA presents the results of the New Jersey study, and Carol Lee Roalkvam from WSDOT gives an overview of the WSDOT study.
• In FHWA Pilots Webinar II, after Becky Lupes gives a very short introduction, Brenda Dix from MTC gives an overview of the San Francisco Bay study, Jim Lambert from the University of Virginia gives an overview of the Virginia Study, and Randolph Sykes from the Oahu MPO gives an overview of the Oahu study.

FHWA Releases GHG Strategy Analysis Tool. The Energy and Emissions Reduction Policy Analysis Tool (EERPAT) was developed to assist state transportation agencies with analyzing greenhouse gas reduction scenarios and alternatives. The Tool allows agencies to quickly assess policy interactions in hundreds of scenarios. The Tool uses GreenSTEP, developed by the Oregon State DOT, as its foundation, and is expected to have regular enhancements. FHWA will be conducting pilots of the tool in early 2012. DOTs interested in participating in the pilots should contact Diane Turchetta at 202-493-0158 or diane.turchetta@dot.gov.

FHWA’s Conditions and Performance Report Includes Chapter on Climate Change Adaptation. FHWA’s bi-annual “Report to Congress” for the first time includes a chapter on climate change adaptation. The chapter includes information on projected climate change impacts to highway transportation, steps for assessing adaptation needs, discussion of adaptation options, barriers to implementation of adaptation measures, and some current adaptation activities underway by USDOT, and state and local transportation agencies.

FHWA Newsletter Highlights use of ROW for Renewable Electricity Generation. The December issue of FHWA’s Success in Stewardship Newsletter, “Utilizing the Highway Right-of-Way to Generate Renewable Energy,” highlights DOT efforts in Oregon, Ohio, Massachusetts, and North Carolina to use highway rights-of-way for solar, wind, and biofuel generation.

FAA Issues NEPA GHG Guidance. On January 12, the Federal Aviation Administration issued interim guidance on considering greenhouse gas emissions in NEPA studies. The guidance calls for including an estimate of CO2 equivalent emissions if conducting an analysis of other air emissions or if computing and reporting on fuel burn in the NEPA document.

EPA Issues Draft Guidance on Using MOVES for Estimating State and Local On-Road GHG Emissions. The draft EPA guidance, “Using MOVES for Estimating State and Local Inventories of On-Road Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Consumption,” explains how to use the MOVES model to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from on road vehicles to create state or local inventories, or to estimate total energy consumption from the on-road sector. This document is posted on a new web pagethat also hosts other recent EPA publications about estimating emission reductions of both greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants from transportation efficiency strategies.

Army Corps of Engineers Issues Sea Level Rise Guidance. USACE’s “Engineering Circular 1165-2-212” provides guidance for accounting for projected future sea level rise across the project life-cycle for all Army Corps Civil Works activities. According to the Circular, local sea level rise is required to be considered in all Corps coastal activities. The circular includes some broad guidelines on how to develop and consider this information in alternatives selection for a project (pp.1-4), and also includes several appendices. One appendix is designed to help project sponsors estimate future trends in local sea level rise relevant to a specific project, while a second provides a decision-support flowchart for developing ranges of projected local sea level rise.

Report Identifies Climate Information and Assistance Needs. “Climate Adaptation & Transportation: Identifying Information and Assistance Needs” summarizes presentations and discussions from a NOAA workshop to investigate the transportation community’s needs for assistance from the climate science community, identifying the major findings and recommendations for addressing them. Workshop discussion focused on ways the climate science community can help meet transportation organizations’ needs for data, decision support tools, technical assistance, and other activities.  Attendees included representatives from the transportation and climate science fields in government, academia, consulting, and the nonprofit communities. The Center for Clean Air Policy and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute led this study with funding from NOAA.

State and Local News

Florida Report Looks at Assessing Sea Level Rise on Transportation Infrastructure. A new report sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), “Development of a Methodology for the Assessment of Sea Level Rise Impacts on Florida’s Transportation Modes and Infrastructure,” provides recommendations on how to assess the impacts of Sea Level Rise (SLR) on transportation infrastructure in Florida. Researchers at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) reviewed existing SLR forecasts, undertook an extensive inventory of the transportation network along the Florida coastline, and developed a methodology for identifying and assessing potentially vulnerable transportation infrastructure. The researchers applied this methodology and developed case studies for three locations in the state. The report provides recommendations to FDOT on building the impact of SLR into their planning, project development, and construction processes.

WSDOT Issues Updated Climate Change Guidance. WSDOT has issued updated guidance on considering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change effects in project evaluations. The guidance calls for no GHG, qualitative GHG, or quantitative GHG analysis based on the class of environmental review, and provides a recommended quantitative approach for the analysis and sample language. It also addresses how climate change effects could be considered by asking project teams to ask and answer the question: “how will my project be affected by climate change?” and provides the steps and resources to do this.

Washington State Issues Framework for Addressing Climate Change Challenges. In recognition of a projected $10 billion in costs from climate change by the end of the decade, Washington State has released an “Integrated Climate Change Response Strategy” that is intended to provide a broad framework for decision-makers to use in their day-to-day work to ensure that consideration of climate change impacts is given a high priority. The strategy, “Preparing for a Changing Climate: Washington State’s Integrated Climate Response Strategy,” was completed by the Department of Ecology in collaboration with other state agencies and released April 3. It lays out a variety of threats ranging from the risks posed by a projected spike in diseases found in warmer climates such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia to increased flooding brought on by more frequent extreme weather events.

The response plan suggests adaptive strategies such as public education to meet disease threats and floodplain restoration, with the goal of increasing water storage capacity to fend off floods. The report calls for reducing risk of damage to buildings, transportation systems, and other infrastructure by:

• Identifying vulnerable areas and taking proactive steps to reduce risks to infrastructure;
• avoiding climate risks when siting new infrastructure and planning for growth; and
• enhancing capacity to prepare for more frequent and severe flooding, rising sea levels, wildfires, and changes in energy supply and demand.

The report noted WSDOT’s recent efforts to conduct a qualitative assessment and initial screening of state-owned transportation infrastructure vulnerable to climate impacts as part of FHWA’s pilot program. The results of that assessment will be used to help prepare for future conditions and incorporate climate information into decision-making.

New York State Creates Electric Vehicle Voucher Incentive Program – The FHWA New York Division approved $10 million of Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds for the initial year of a statewide project entitled the “New York State Electric Vehicle Voucher Incentive Program.”  This program is intended to help the private companies, public entities, and non-profit entities operating vehicles within New York State to purchase new electric-battery powered medium and heavy-duty (Class 3-8) trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000 pounds or more.  MPOs in all air quality nonattainment/maintenance areas of the State are being given the opportunity to endorse the statewide project on their Transportation Improvement Programs. If an MPO chooses not to endorse it, dealers in their area will not be eligible to participate.  It is estimated that this incentive program will provide vouchers for at least 450 vehicles in the first year, reducing greenhouse gases by an estimated 11,700 tons and saving about 1 million gallons of diesel fuel. This project was the result of cooperative discussions between the New York Division’s Planning, Environment, and Right of Way Section, the New York State Department of Transportation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and the New York City Department of Transportation. More information is available in a press releasefrom Governor Cuomo.

New York State Releases Climate Change Adaptation Report. In an effort to provide state decision makers with information on the state’s vulnerability to climate change and to assist in the development of adaptation strategies, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) produced “ClimAID: the Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in New York State.” The report contains a chapter on transportation infrastructure in the state, including a comprehensive description of the sector, the relevant climate hazards, and resulting vulnerabilities. The transportation chapter also outlines key adaptation strategies and important equity and environmental justice considerations.

Oregon’s TIGER III Electric Vehicle Charging Corridor Project Gets Major Boost. The Electric Vehicle Charging Corridor Connectivity Network Project in Oregon has been awarded an additional $1.34 million in TIGER III funding. The current project, originally funded with $2 million in TIGER II funding will install 22 DC fast charging stations at major destinations outside of Oregon’s metropolitan areas.  The project is anticipated to begin installation in April 2012, and be completed by December 2012. The additional TIGER III funding will allow expansion of the DC fast charging stations network as envisioned in the State’s original proposal.

NJTPA Hosts International Discussion on Climate Change Adaptation. On March 28, 2012, The North Jersey Transportation Authority (NJTPA) hosted the Symposium – Adapting to Climate Change: an International Discussion. As part of a tour of US transportation agencies, researchers from the Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) met with officials from NJTPA, NJ Transit, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Rutgers University, and others to exchange information on infrastructure resiliency and climate change adaptation activities. More information, including presentations and video recordings of the proceedings, is available on the NJTPA website.

Announcements

FHWA and AMPO Webinar on Climate Change Planning for MPOs: Effective Implementation of Traffic Operations and Management. June 26, 2012, 2:00-3:30 Eastern time. How are MPOs building on existing transportation management and operations programs to meet climate change needs? For GHG reductions? For better emergency response to extreme weather (climate) events? This webinar is free and open to all, however registration is required. This is the last in a series of six webinars on climate change sponsored by FHWA and AMPO.

Portland State University Transportation Seminar Series Explores Modeling and Climate Change – For the Spring of 2012, Portland State University’s Center for Transportation Studies Seminar Series, traditionally covering a breadth of current transportation topics, will instead focus on the single theme of transportation modeling, specifically taking a policy oriented approach and examining climate change impacts. Speakers for the series of 8 to 10 seminars will include both public and private sector transportation professionals. The series is free and open to the public. Webcasts of each seminar will be available live and archived; see www.cts.pdx.edu/seminars/ for topics and scheduling details.

If you have any suggestions for inclusion in future issues of Transportation and Climate Change News, or if someone forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like to receive it directly in the future, please send your suggestions or request to Becky Lupes at Rebecca.Lupes@dot.gov or Heather Holsinger at Heather.Holsinger@dot.gov.

(Source: Ars Technica)

Each year, the International Energy Agency produces a report in which it considers trends in energy use and makes projections for the future. Usually, these reports simply take recent trends and project them forward, but this year’s is somewhat different: its author uses a mixture of current trends and the projected impact of countries’ pledges for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and subsidies for fossil fuels. This results in some eye-popping figures. Globally, we’re subsidizing fossil fuel use to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, at a rate of over five times the subsidies going to renewable energy. And our inaction on climate goals has tacked $1 trillion onto the cost of reaching them—in 2009 alone.

We’ll start with the subsidies. In 2009, the total subsidies were $312 billion, which may seem high until you hear the 2008 figure: $558 billion, boosted by countries’ responses to the high fossil fuel prices that year. Most of the subsidies went to help cut the costs of using oil and natural gas products; another substantial chunk went to electricity use.

The IEA factsheet also forecasts a steep rises in the primary energy demand (increases by 36% between 2008 and 2035, or 1.2% per year on average) oil prices. The cost of getting on track to meet the climate goal for 2030 has risen by about $1 trillioncompared with the estimated cost in last year’s Outlook. This is because much stronger efforts,costing considerably more, will be needed after 2020. In the 450 Scenario in this year’s Outlook, theadditional spending on low‑carbon energy technologies (business investment and consumerspending) amounts to nearly $18 trillion (in year- 2009 dollars) more than in the Current PoliciesScenario, in which no new policies are assumed, in the period 2010‑2035. It is around $13.5 trillionmore than in the New Policies Scenario.

Click here to read the entire Ars Technica argument and the IEA’s World Energy Outlook website.

Note: Recommendations to remove the fuel subsidies will have huge implications for people living in developing and under-developed countries of the world.  The consequences has life-altering impacts for many people living below the poverty line, even in booming economies like China and India.  Many in these parts of the world earn so little that it won’t even make their ends meet and how would they pay for burning their kerosene stoves or ride their little 50cc mopeds to work.  Why do I find this huge divide between the educated class (i.e., Armani wearing executives sitting in board rooms of IEA and sipping lattes in Davos chatting over prices of fuel in some distant future) and the poor working class (the one who toil in hard work on the factory floors and make a meager living that pays for one meal a day)?  Governments in  these developing economic countries have a huge problem dealing with the pressures of providing the basic necessities and if the subsidies were lifted, many would find it hard to survive.  Unless the global community comes up with a quick, clean energy solution(s) that is affordable and accessible to all, I think many nations will not buy into these meaningless recommendations. Already many countries are struggling to find money to sustain their existing support programs for the poor and where would they go to find more money for wide-spread deployment of  Clean & sustainable energy solutions such as Solar, electric, etc.

Related articles

• IEA: last year’s inaction on climate goals cost us $1 trillion (arstechnica.com)
• World should eradicate fossil fuel subsidies-IEA (reuters.com)
• World should eradicate fossil fuel subsidies: IEA (reuters.com)
• China, Government Policy to Drive Energy Prices (247wallst.com)
• Call to stop fossil fuel subsidy (bbc.co.uk)
• Axe fossil fuel subsidies to stop climate change (newscientist.com)
• put an end to $312 billion subsidies to fossil fuels – IEA (politics.ie)
• Fat Subsidies for Fossil Fuels (solarfeeds.com)
• Oil demand to rise for 25 years despite green push (grist.org)
• Drumbeat: November 9, 2010 (theoildrum.com)
• More needs to be done to avoid oil spike, IEA says (sfgate.com)
• IEA World Energy Outlook 2010 Now Out; a Preliminary Look (theoildrum.com)
• “IEA raises oil price outlook on supply uncertainty” and related posts (kippreport.com)
• More needs to be done to avoid oil spike, IEA says (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Forecaster Sees Jump in Energy Demand by 2035 (nytimes.com)
• IEA sees oil peak looming (financialpost.com)
• China’s thirst to keep oil prices booming: IEA (theglobeandmail.com)
• Text:EIA November Outlk: Oil Prices To Rise to $87 By Q4′11 -1 (forexlive.com)
• G20 Leaders Not Removing Fossil Fuel Subsidies As Pledged. (thegoodhuman.com)
• Two-faced world spends billions on climate help, fossil fuel (go.theregister.com)

(Source: USDOT)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA)  and the U.S. Department of Transportation today announced the first national standards to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve fuel efficiency of heavy-duty trucks and buses. This comprehensive national program is projected to reduce GHG emissions by nearly 250 million metric tons and save 500 million barrels of oil over the lives of the vehicles produced within the program’s first five years.

EPA and DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are proposing new standards for three categories of heavy trucks: combination tractors, heavy-duty pickups and vans, and vocational vehicles. The categories were established to address specific challenges for manufacturers in each area.  For combination tractors, the agencies are proposing engine and vehicle standards that begin in the 2014 model year and achieve up to a 20 percent reduction in CO2 emissions and fuel consumption by 2018 model year.  For heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans, the agencies are proposing separate gasoline and diesel truck standards which phase in starting in the 2014 model year and achieve up to a 10 percent reduction for gasoline vehicles and 15 percent reduction for diesel vehicles by 2018 model year (12 and 17 percent respectively if accounting for air conditioning leakage). Lastly, for vocational vehicles, the agencies are proposing engine and vehicle standards starting in the 2014 model year which would achieve up to a 10 percent reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 2018 model year.

Overall, NHTSA and EPA estimate that the heavy-duty national program would provide $41 billion in net benefits over the lifetime of model year 2014 to 2018 vehicles. With the potential for significant fuel efficiency gains, ranging from seven to 20 percent, drivers and operators could expect to net significant savings over the long-term. For example, it is estimated an operator of a semi truck could pay for the technology upgrades in under a year, and save as much as $74,000 over the truck’s useful life. Vehicles with lower annual miles would typically experience longer payback periods, up to four or five years, but would still reap cost-savings.

EPA and NHTSA are providing a 60-day comment period that begins when the proposal is published in the Federal Register.  The proposal and information about how to submit comments is at: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/regulations.htm and http://www.nhtsa.gov/fuel-economy .

Click here read the USDOT presser on this issue.

Related articles

• Government seeks truck fuel efficiency rules (msnbc.msn.com)
• Government to propose truck fuel efficiency rules (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Government to propose truck fuel efficiency rules (sfgate.com)
• Government to Propose Truck Fuel Efficiency Rules (abcnews.go.com)
• Proposal Pending on Mileage for Heavy-Duty Vehicles (nytimes.com)
• Federal Agencies Push Renewable Energy, Truck Fuel Efficiency (environmentalleader.com)
• Garbage Trucks Go Green (technologyreview.in)
• Gov’t calling for better gas mileage for trucks (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• EPA to propose truck fuel efficiency standards (marketwatch.com)
• Report: EPA poised to outline medium- and heavy-duty truck emissions standards (autoblog.com)
• EPA to Release Draft Greenhouse Gas Emission Limits for Heavy Trucks (nytimes.com)