IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v74y2014icp486-498.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of the economic crisis and policy actions on GHG emissions from road transport in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Sobrino, Natalia
  • Monzon, Andres

Abstract

Road traffic is the greatest contributor to the carbon footprint of the transport sector and reducing it has become one of the main targets of sustainable transport policies. An analysis of the main factors influencing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is essential for designing new energy- and environmentally efficient strategies for the road transport. This paper addresses this need by (i) identifying factors which influence the carbon footprint, including traffic activity, fuel economy and socioeconomic development; and (ii) proposing a methodological framework which uses Modified Laspeyres Index decomposition to analyze the effect of important drivers on the changes in emissions of road transport in Spain during the period from 1990 to 2010. The results demonstrate that the country׳s economic growth has been closely linked to the rise in GHG emissions. The innovative contribution of this paper is the special analysis of the changes in mobility patterns and GHG emissions during the economic crisis, when, for the first time, Spanish road traffic emissions decreased. The reduction of road transport and improved energy efficiency has been powerful contributors to this decrease, demonstrating the effectiveness of energy-saving measures. On the basis of this analysis, several tailored policy recommendations have been suggested for future implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Sobrino, Natalia & Monzon, Andres, 2014. "The impact of the economic crisis and policy actions on GHG emissions from road transport in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 486-498.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:74:y:2014:i:c:p:486-498
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2014.07.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421514004480
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2014.07.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ang, B. W., 2004. "Decomposition analysis for policymaking in energy:: which is the preferred method?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1131-1139, June.
    2. Lee Schipper & Calanit Saenger & Anant Sudardshan, 2011. "Transport and Carbon Emissions in the United States: The Long View," Energies, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-19, March.
    3. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    4. Pérez-López, Paula & Gasol, Carles M. & Oliver-Solà, Jordi & Huelin, Sagrario & Moreira, Ma Teresa & Feijoo, Gumersindo, 2013. "Greenhouse gas emissions from Spanish motorway transport: Key aspects and mitigation solutions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 705-713.
    5. Papagiannaki, Katerina & Diakoulaki, Danae, 2009. "Decomposition analysis of CO2 emissions from passenger cars: The cases of Greece and Denmark," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3259-3267, August.
    6. Ang, B.W & Zhang, F.Q & Choi, Ki-Hong, 1998. "Factorizing changes in energy and environmental indicators through decomposition," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 489-495.
    7. Timilsina, Govinda R. & Shrestha, Ashish, 2009. "Transport sector CO2 emissions growth in Asia: Underlying factors and policy options," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4523-4539, November.
    8. Yan, Xiaoyu & Crookes, Roy J., 2009. "Reduction potentials of energy demand and GHG emissions in China's road transport sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 658-668, February.
    9. B. W. Ang & Ki-Hong Choi, 1997. "Decomposition of Aggregate Energy and Gas Emission Intensities for Industry: A Refined Divisia Index Method," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 59-73.
    10. Sun, J. W., 1998. "Changes in energy consumption and energy intensity: A complete decomposition model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 85-100, February.
    11. Zhang, Ming & Li, Huanan & Zhou, Min & Mu, Hailin, 2011. "Decomposition analysis of energy consumption in Chinese transportation sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 2279-2285, June.
    12. Mendiluce, María & Schipper, Lee, 2011. "Trends in passenger transport and freight energy use in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 6466-6475, October.
    13. Lipscy, Phillip Y. & Schipper, Lee, 2013. "Energy efficiency in the Japanese transport sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 248-258.
    14. Wang, W.W. & Zhang, M. & Zhou, M., 2011. "Using LMDI method to analyze transport sector CO2 emissions in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 5909-5915.
    15. Scholl, Lynn & Schipper, Lee & Kiang, Nancy, 1996. "CO2 emissions from passenger transport : A comparison of international trends from 1973 to 1992," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 17-30, January.
    16. He, Kebin & Huo, Hong & Zhang, Qiang & He, Dongquan & An, Feng & Wang, Michael & Walsh, Michael P., 2005. "Oil consumption and CO2 emissions in China's road transport: current status, future trends, and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 1499-1507, August.
    17. Li, Hongqi & Lu, Yue & Zhang, Jun & Wang, Tianyi, 2013. "Trends in road freight transportation carbon dioxide emissions and policies in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 99-106.
    18. Mendiluce, María & Pérez-Arriaga, Ignacio & Ocaña, Carlos, 2010. "Comparison of the evolution of energy intensity in Spain and in the EU15. Why is Spain different?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 639-645, January.
    19. Lu, I.J. & Lin, Sue J. & Lewis, Charles, 2007. "Decomposition and decoupling effects of carbon dioxide emission from highway transportation in Taiwan, Germany, Japan and South Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 3226-3235, June.
    20. Ang, B.W. & Liu, F.L., 2001. "A new energy decomposition method: perfect in decomposition and consistent in aggregation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 537-548.
    21. Piecyk, Maja I. & McKinnon, Alan C., 2010. "Forecasting the carbon footprint of road freight transport in 2020," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 31-42, November.
    22. Ang, B.W. & Zhang, F.Q., 2000. "A survey of index decomposition analysis in energy and environmental studies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 1149-1176.
    23. Ang, B.W. & Huang, H.C. & Mu, A.R., 2009. "Properties and linkages of some index decomposition analysis methods," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4624-4632, November.
    24. Banister, David, 2011. "The trilogy of distance, speed and time," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 950-959.
    25. Timilsina, Govinda R. & Shrestha, Ashish, 2009. "Why have CO2 emissions increased in the transport sector in Asia ? underlying factors and policy options," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5098, The World Bank.
    26. Kwon, Tae-Hyeong, 2005. "Decomposition of factors determining the trend of CO2 emissions from car travel in Great Britain (1970-2000)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 261-275, April.
    27. González, Rosa Marina & Marrero, Gustavo A., 2012. "The effect of dieselization in passenger cars emissions for Spanish regions: 1998–2006," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 213-222.
    28. Mazzarino, Marco, 2000. "The economics of the greenhouse effect: evaluating the climate change impact due to the transport sector in Italy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(13), pages 957-966, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xu, X.Y. & Ang, B.W., 2013. "Index decomposition analysis applied to CO2 emission studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 313-329.
    2. GUPTA Monika & SINGH Sanjay, 2016. "Factorizing The Changes In Co2 Emissions From Indian Road Passenger Transport: A Decomposition Analysis," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 11(3), pages 67-83, December.
    3. Xiaoshu Cao & Shishu OuYang & Dan Liu & Wenyue Yang, 2019. "Spatiotemporal Patterns and Decomposition Analysis of CO 2 Emissions from Transportation in the Pearl River Delta," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Jennings, Mark & Ó Gallachóir, Brian P. & Schipper, Lee, 2013. "Irish passenger transport: Data refinements, international comparisons, and decomposition analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 151-164.
    5. Suyi Kim, 2019. "Decomposition Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Korea’s Transportation Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Geoffrey Udoka Nnadiri & Anthony S. F. Chiu & Jose Bienvenido Manuel Biona & Neil Stephen Lopez, 2021. "Comparison of Driving Forces to Increasing Traffic Flow and Transport Emissions in Philippine Regions: A Spatial Decomposition Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, June.
    7. Fernández González, P. & Landajo, M. & Presno, M.J., 2013. "The Divisia real energy intensity indices: Evolution and attribution of percent changes in 20 European countries from 1995 to 2010," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 340-349.
    8. Shiraki, Hiroto & Matsumoto, Ken'ichi & Shigetomi, Yosuke & Ehara, Tomoki & Ochi, Yuki & Ogawa, Yuki, 2020. "Factors affecting CO2 emissions from private automobiles in Japan: The impact of vehicle occupancy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    9. Lin, Boqiang & Ouyang, Xiaoling, 2014. "Analysis of energy-related CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions and reduction potential in the Chinese non-metallic mineral products industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 688-697.
    10. Vaninsky, Alexander, 2014. "Factorial decomposition of CO2 emissions: A generalized Divisia index approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 389-400.
    11. Zhang, Chuanguo & Nian, Jiang, 2013. "Panel estimation for transport sector CO2 emissions and its affecting factors: A regional analysis in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 918-926.
    12. Román-Collado, Rocío & Cansino, José M. & Botia, Camilo, 2018. "How far is Colombia from decoupling? Two-level decomposition analysis of energy consumption changes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 687-700.
    13. Wang, Bo & Sun, Yefei & Chen, Qingxiang & Wang, Zhaohua, 2018. "Determinants analysis of carbon dioxide emissions in passenger and freight transportation sectors in China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 127-132.
    14. Achour, Houda & Belloumi, Mounir, 2016. "Decomposing the influencing factors of energy consumption in Tunisian transportation sector using the LMDI method," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 64-71.
    15. Lilis Yuaningsih & R. Adjeng Mariana Febrianti & Munawar Javed Ahmad, 2021. "Examining the Factors Affecting CO2 Emissions from Road Transportation in Malaysia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(6), pages 152-159.
    16. Fernández González, P., 2015. "Exploring energy efficiency in several European countries. An attribution analysis of the Divisia structural change index," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 364-374.
    17. González, Domingo & Martínez, Manuel, 2012. "Changes in CO2 emission intensities in the Mexican industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 149-163.
    18. Andreoni, V. & Galmarini, S., 2012. "European CO2 emission trends: A decomposition analysis for water and aviation transport sectors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 595-602.
    19. M'raihi, Rafaa & Mraihi, Talel & Harizi, Riadh & Taoufik Bouzidi, Mohamed, 2015. "Carbon emissions growth and road freight: Analysis of the influencing factors in Tunisia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 121-129.
    20. Fernández González, P. & Presno, M.J. & Landajo, M., 2015. "Regional and sectoral attribution to percentage changes in the European Divisia carbonization index," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1437-1452.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:74:y:2014:i:c:p:486-498. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.