TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
TRANSPORTATIONOECD International Conference, Vancouver Canada
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
TRANSPORTATION
In order to identify the features of sustainable transportation systems, measures for comprehensively quantifying their environmental burdens are required. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the most promising tools for such purpose in general. Though the LCA is usually applied to industrial products, it may also be applied to technology systems like transportation systems. The paper describes a general framework of the LCA on transportation systems, and reviews major environmental burdens to be assessed. Special attention has to be paid in the LCA on transportation systems, as the system boundary of the assessment should be expanded to include infrastructures. This is followed by substantiated results from the life cycle analysis of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions related to motor vehicles. Input-output analysis, as well as ordinary summing-up approaches are applied for the calculation. Life cycle emissions of Carbon dioxide (LCC02) by an average-sized Japanese motor vehicle amounts to 8.9 tons as carbon, assuming lifetime traveling distance as lOO,OOOkm. This accounts for 1.5 times as much as direct emissions from fuel consumption. Comparison of LCC02 between a gasoline vehicle and an electric vehicle is also made, with sensitivity analysis of the fuel mix of electricity generation. Contributions of greenhouse gases other than C02 emitted as exhaust gas are relatively small, whereas the release of CFCs or HFCs used for air conditioners, unless recovered, may have significant contribution to the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.
Yuichi Moriguchi, Yoshinori Kondo, Hiroshi Shimizu