IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v52y2025i6p1282-1290.html

A consequential framework to quantify the climate impacts of passenger travel

Author

Listed:
  • Alexander Bigazzi

Abstract

Transportation analyses rely almost exclusively on attributional carbon accounting methods, which can distort the ‘carbon footprint’ of passenger travel and estimated effects of mitigation strategies. This commentary aims to facilitate a transition to consequential carbon accounting in transportation, a sector that contributes a large and growing share of global greenhouse gas emissions. A conceptual framework for consequential accounting of the climate impacts from passenger travel is proposed, which requires characterization of a counterfactual. An analytical framework is then developed to apply the consequential framework. Finally, research directions are described to advance consequential carbon accounting methods in transportation analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander Bigazzi, 2025. "A consequential framework to quantify the climate impacts of passenger travel," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 52(6), pages 1282-1290, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:6:p:1282-1290
    DOI: 10.1177/23998083251325925
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23998083251325925
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/23998083251325925?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beltrami, Filippo & Burlinson, Andrew & Giulietti, Monica & Grossi, Luigi & Rowley, Paul & Wilson, Grant, 2020. "Where did the time (series) go? Estimation of marginal emission factors with autoregressive components," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Graff Zivin, Joshua S. & Kotchen, Matthew J. & Mansur, Erin T., 2014. "Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of marginal emissions: Implications for electric cars and other electricity-shifting policies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 248-268.
    3. Bigazzi, Alexander Y. & Figliozzi, Miguel A., 2013. "Marginal costs of freeway traffic congestion with on-road pollution exposure externality," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 12-24.
    4. Bigazzi, Alexander, 2019. "Comparison of marginal and average emission factors for passenger transportation modes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 1460-1466.
    5. Hawkes, A.D., 2014. "Long-run marginal CO2 emissions factors in national electricity systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 197-205.
    6. Tu, Ran & Gai, Yijun (Jessie) & Farooq, Bilal & Posen, Daniel & Hatzopoulou, Marianne, 2020. "Electric vehicle charging optimization to minimize marginal greenhouse gas emissions from power generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    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. Maxwell Woody & Michael T. Craig & Parth T. Vaishnav & Geoffrey M. Lewis & Gregory A. Keoleian, 2022. "Optimizing future cost and emissions of electric delivery vehicles," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(3), pages 1108-1122, June.
    2. Sonia Martin & Siobhan Powell & Ram Rajagopal, 2025. "Cascading marginal emissions signals for green charging with growing electric vehicle adoption," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Ling, Chen & Yang, Qing & Wang, Qingrui & Bartocci, Pietro & Jiang, Lei & Xu, Zishuo & Wang, Luyao, 2024. "A comprehensive consumption-based carbon accounting framework for power system towards low-carbon transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    4. Beltrami, Filippo & Grossi, Luigi & Liebensteiner, Mario, 2025. "Beyond borders: Estimating the marginal emission factor of electricity trade," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    5. Souhir Ben Amor & Smaranda Sgarciu & Taimyra BatzLineiro & Felix Muesgens, 2024. "Advanced Models for Hourly Marginal CO2 Emission Factor Estimation: A Synergy between Fundamental and Statistical Approaches," Papers 2412.17379, arXiv.org.
    6. Filippo Beltrami & Fulvio Fontini & Monica Giulietti & Luigi Grossi, 2022. "The Zonal and Seasonal CO2 Marginal Emissions Factors for the Italian Power Market," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(2), pages 381-411, October.
    7. Heydarzadeh, Zahra & Mac Kinnon, Michael & Thai, Clinton & Reed, Jeff & Brouwer, Jack, 2020. "Marginal methane emission estimation from the natural gas system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    8. Powell, Siobhan & Martin, Sonia & Rajagopal, Ram & Azevedo, Inês M.L. & de Chalendar, Jacques, 2024. "Future-proof rates for controlled electric vehicle charging: Comparing multi-year impacts of different emission factor signals," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    9. Zhong, Zewei & Zeng, Yun & Zhao, Xiaoli & Zhang, Sufang, 2024. "The social benefits resulting from electric vehicle smart charging balancing economy and decarbonization," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 113-124.
    10. Ben Amor, Souhir & Sgarciu, Smaranda & BatzLineiro, Taimyra & Muesgens, Felix, 2025. "Advanced models for hourly marginal CO2 emission factor estimation: A synergy between fundamental and statistical approaches," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 397(C).
    11. Chaparro, Iván & Watts, David & Gil, Esteban, 2017. "Modeling marginal CO2 emissions in hydrothermal systems: Efficient carbon signals for renewables," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 318-331.
    12. Olkkonen, Ville & Hirvonen, Janne & Heljo, Juhani & Syri, Sanna, 2021. "Effectiveness of building stock sustainability measures in a low-carbon energy system: A scenario analysis for Finland until 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    13. Li, Mo & Yang, Yi & Smith, Timothy M. & Wilson, Elizabeth J., 2020. "Wind can reduce storage-induced emissions at grid scales," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    14. Koebrich, Sam & Cofield, Joel & McCormick, Gavin & Saraswat, Ishan & Steinsultz, Nat & Christian, Pierre, 2025. "Towards objective evaluation of the accuracy of marginal emissions factors," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    15. Beltrami, Filippo & Burlinson, Andrew & Giulietti, Monica & Grossi, Luigi & Rowley, Paul & Wilson, Grant, 2020. "Where did the time (series) go? Estimation of marginal emission factors with autoregressive components," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    16. Chen, Jiahui & Wang, Fang & He, Xiaoyi & Liang, Xinyu & Huang, Junling & Zhang, Shaojun & Wu, Ye, 2022. "Emission mitigation potential from coordinated charging schemes for future private electric vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    17. Beltrami, Filippo, 2024. "The impact of hydroelectric storage in Northern Italy’s power market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    18. Sheldon, Tamara L. & Dua, Rubal, 2018. "Gasoline savings from clean vehicle adoption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 418-424.
    19. Michel Noussan & Edoardo Campisi & Matteo Jarre, 2022. "Carbon Intensity of Passenger Transport Modes: A Review of Emission Factors, Their Variability and the Main Drivers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-16, August.
    20. Erik P. Johnson & Juan Moreno-Cruz, 2020. "Congestion in the Electricity Transmission System Redistributes Pollution across Long Distances," CESifo Working Paper Series 8483, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:6:p:1282-1290. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.