Sustainable Transportation: Environmental Benefits
Hello readers,
It’s really easy to look at the news and become discouraged about the future of our environment. Our future may seem dismal, but it's not too late, there are plenty of exciting solutions. I’ll be discussing those solutions in this article.
Pollution from Transportation
One of the main contributors to global C02 emissions is transportation, the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that in the past decade, 24% of global emissions came from the transport sector. In addition, 96% of global transportation relies on greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels (IEA, 2021). These numbers mean that almost all modes of transportation are extremely fossil fuel dependent.
We can solve this problem by creating sustainable public transport
Sustainable transportation isn’t easy, it involves advanced technology and a lot of investment in infrastructure. In the next few years, countries must create sustainable transportation methods to prevent climate change. China is tackling the issue by creating a network of high-speed trains.
China’s High-Speed Rail
In 2021 a group of researchers took an in-depth look at China’s new rail network and its effect on C02 emissions. They found the following, “The High-Speed Rail (HSR) connection reduces annual average overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 11.183 million tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) for the whole country through the effects of replacing road traffic” (Lin, Qin, Wu, 2021).
The trains caused an 11.183 million ton reduction in C02 emissions. The emissions were reduced because the trains carried significantly more people than a singular car could, consequently less fossil fuel was consumed.
The data is encouraging because China’s trains themselves aren’t even environmentally friendly. In fact, the Chinese trains are coal-powered. According to the researchers, “HSR may emit more than twice as much as cars on highways, and more than four times as much as road goods vehicles” (Lin, Qin, Wu, 2021).
Despite being coal-powered, and actually quite polluting, since implementing the system there was a significant reduction in emissions. This suggests that public transportation is far more environmentally efficient than personal vehicle travel because of the sheer number of people a train can carry.
What would happen to emissions if the Chinese trains were environmentally clean?
In the aforementioned study, the researchers estimated what would happen with a green train system, “GHG-emission reduction almost doubles from 11.183 million tons of CO2e to 20.251 million tons of CO2e” (Lin, Qin, Wu, 2021).
Granted this is only an estimation, that is a large reduction. If every city could achieve sustainable public transport like this, the results on the environment would be significant. China is trying to switch to renewable energy-powered trains by 2030. Hopefully, many countries will follow.
The 15-Minute City Solution
Some cities don’t have the money or technology for sustainable infrastructure. Fortunately, cities don’t need physical infrastructure to decrease their emissions, instead, they can reduce emissions with the urban layout. When reading through my peer’s blogs I came across the article The 15-Minute City by Arianna Marra.
In Arianna’s article, she looked at a research paper called, A Methodological Approach on Disused Public Properties in the 15-Minute City Perspective. Arianna described a 15-minute city as a neighborhood with all the essential establishments located within a 15-minute radius (Marra, 2022).
There are environmental benefits that come with a 15-minute city. In Arianna’s words, “With everything close by, many people could start walking or cycling to where they need to go. This would not only help our environment, but it would also increase the health of our neighbors” (Marra, 2022).
Essentially, if a city is laid out in a 15-minute fashion, residents could walk or bike to wherever they need to go. Walking and biking is a form of sustainable transportation because it doesn’t emit greenhouse gases and pretty much anyone can do it. Planning cities like this would immediately reduce emissions without the expensive infrastructure. It would also increase the health and happiness of residents.
Thanks for reading. I hope I’ve brightened your outlook on the future. Next week I will discuss sustainable technology.
Citations
International Energy Agency (IEA). (2021). CO2 Emissions by Sector, World 1990–2018, IEA.
Lin, Y; Qin, Y; Jing, W; Xu, M. (2021). Impact of high-speed rail on road traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. Nature Climate Change, 11, 952–957.
Marra, A. (2022, March). The 15-Minute City. Saving Cities.
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways(2019). 15 Minute City. Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.
