Why have multiple climate policies for light-duty vehicles? Policy mix rationales, interactions and research gaps

Globally, there are a wide variety of policies in place that could help contribute to deep greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in the light-duty vehicle sector. Most regions are impacted by a mix of such policies. However, the transportation literature has devoted little attention to policy mixes, especially in the light-duty vehicles sector, so here the authors review and draw insights from the broader, mostly non-transport literature. They identify several rationales for pursuing mixes of policies: (i) the “three legs” approach to transport decarbonization, namely that different policies should address different GHG reduction areas (low-carbon fuels, vehicle efficiency and reduced travel demand), (ii) the “market failure” perspective that a different policy is needed to correct each market failure, (iii) the “political process” perspective that considers the real-world need for a policy mix to be perceived as political acceptability, and (iv) the “systems” perspective that policy needs to send signals to channel technological innovation and break the lock-in of incumbent practices. Based on this review, the authors develop a simple framework for examining policy interactions across multiple criteria, namely GHG mitigation, cost-effectiveness, political acceptability, and transformative signal. The authors demonstrate this framework by setting hypotheses for interactions across six light-duty vehicle policies in the case of British Columbia, Canada – including a carbon tax, electric vehicle purchase incentives, infrastructure deployment, and three regulations. The authors conclude with a summary of important research gaps and implications for policy design, as well as quantitative modeling.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2020.03.011
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856419302988
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09658564
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Bhardwaj, Chandan
  • Axsen, Jonn
  • Kern, Florian
  • McCollum, David
• Publication Date: 2020-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 309-326
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
  • Volume: 135
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0965-8564
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternate fuels; Climate change; Greenhouse gases; Policy; Policy making; Private passenger vehicles; Travel demand management; Zero emission vehicles
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Highways; Policy; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01739735
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 21 2020 5:39PM