Lowering CO2 emissions in the Swiss transport sector

In Switzerland, transportation represents 41% of CO2 emissions from energy combustion, a much higher share than in the EU (27%) of the US (31%). Moreover, if total Swiss CO2 emissions decreased by 11% since 1990, CO2 emissions from transport increased by 6% over the same period. Our projections (EPFL 2017) show that the contribution of the transport sector would remain constant within a scenario taking into account climate and energy policy measures already implemented or adopted in 2016. In the EU, several initiatives have already pointed out the necessity to limit the use of petroleum products in transportation. The Swedish automaker Volvo plans to stop selling cars with traditional internal combustion engines by 2019; the French government wants to ban sales of gas and diesel vehicles by 2040; Germany plans also to implement significant policies to reduce the use of fossil energy in transportation. In this paper we assess similar targets in the Swiss transport sector. In a first section we will describe the existing situation regarding Swiss CO2 emissions from the transport sector. In a second section we will describe the existing Swiss measures implemented in this sector and try to evaluate their resulting CO2 saving since 1990 and up to 2035. The modeling of the transport sector in GEMINI-E3 will be described in section three. In this version of the model, we represented electric cars as well as biofuel as a substitute to fossil fuels. In a fourth section we will present the results of the SEMP simulation with an emphasis on the transport sector. The last section will conclude.