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GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK FOR YOUTH IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC How sustainable is your daily commute?
Transport is one of the most energy-intensive sectors in the world today – and there is something that can be done about it. In 2015, 29 per cent of the world’s energy consumption was just for transport (IEA 2018) – roughly 1.1 litres of oil per person per day. In terms of emissions, transport was responsible for 7 737.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (IEA 2017), the main greenhouse gas. To that has to be added costs to human health and other damage done by pollution. It is alarming how motorized transportation has become something we cannot live without, as daily travel distances have gown longer due to urbanization (Figure 38). Because of this, transport poses a threat to climate, energy security, health and even access to basic services.
Transport is a multi-faceted problem. On one hand, the world is fortunate to see the development of alternatives to fossil-fuel powered vehicles, such as pure electric and hybrid vehicles as well as biofuel, fuel-cell and natural-gas powered vehicles (Lopez et al. 2018). However, the increasing dependence on private cars is a fundamental problem in itself. In developed countries, more than half of passenger transport is in private vehicles. In developing ones, it is almost evenly shared between private and public modes. As income levels rise in developing countries, private vehicle use is expected to rise even more.
As motorcycle transport is huge in Asia, it is also interesting to look into. Two- and three-wheelers make up 60–90 per cent of the road vehicle fleet in Southeast Asia (IEA 2018), the majority of which are in the 125 cubic centimetre (cc) range. According to
a Vietnamese case study (Bray and Holyoak 2015), flexibility, shorter travel times and moderate purchase costs make motorcycles a popular option. A study in Iran (Hassani and Hosseini 2016) estimated that motorcycles use 78 per cent less fuel than passenger cars per 100 kilomtres travelled on average. The same study revealed, however, that motorcycles emit 250 per cent more carbon monoxide, 130 per cent more total unburned hydrocarbons, but 87 per cent less nitrogen oxides per kilometre travelled than a passenger car. It seems pretty straightforward when we only look at purchase and operational costs, but a little more thought is worthwhile when we begin add societal considerations to the picture.
The transport problem is as much social as it is technical. How many of you would be willing to take a bus or train or even bike or walk to work? Taking the bus to work could reduce your transport emissions per kilometre by as much as 99 per cent. One remarkable transport story concerns Singapore, which has made great efforts to control private vehicle ownership rates and ensure high quality public transport services. During peak hours, a train arrives every 2–3 minutes while buses come every 10 minutes. To control private car ownership, Singapore operates a vehicle quota system and electronic road pricing (LTA 2017a; LTA 2017b). One of the city’s ultimate goals is to have a train station within a 10-minute walk for all households by 2030. In addition, there is a trend towards mixed-use land development, which combines multiple land uses in the same area, such as residential, work and recreation, to reduce the need for long distance travel (Banister 2008). Singapore also encourages walking, jogging and cycling in the city. The city of Adelaide in Australia fully supports what Singapore
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