Effects of Sustainability Policy – Evaluating Social Consequences of Carbon Targets using Trip Completion Rates
Paper in proceeding, 2022

Sustainability is widely recognised as having social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Strategies to combat global climate change inherently have an environmental focus. However, in line with the sustainability agenda, the social and economic dimensions must also be addressed. Evaluating the social consequences of decisions is often challenging due to a lack of relevant tools and indicators to measure and track them. This paper presents the Trip Completion Rate (TCR) as an indicator currently under development to evaluate the social consequences of climate change policies such as Personal Carbon Allowances (PCA). TCR is an accessibility indicator that evaluates the proportion of a population that can perform their daily activities against a performance metric. Two examples demonstrate the sensitivity of social impacts based on the geographic and demographic variations in different locations, one at the region level and another at the municipal level, through a national household travel survey (NHTS). The Västra Götaland region of Sweden is taken as a test case to illustrate how the indicator may be used, comparing TCR on the entire region and then comparing it to TCRs
calculated at the municipal level. The greenhouse gas emissions of the trips are calculated based on assumptions for different modes of transport. Finally, the results are evaluated against a hypothetical PCA based on the climate goals for the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. The results show that the ability to satisfy one's daily travel needs depends on individual characteristics such as behavioural patterns of travel, travel mode choices and access to local amenities. We find that PCAs may disproportionately affect certain groups more than others. Policymakers must understand who is most affected by sustainability targets to ensure that disproportionately affected groups have an equal opportunity to achieve their daily needs and that adequate
measures are taken to mitigate the local policy effects on social equity.

social equity

neighbourhood

travel survey

trip completion rate

personal carbon allowance

scenario analyses

social sustainability

Author

Sanjay Somanath

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Alexander Hollberg

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Liane Thuvander

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Architectural theory and methods

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science

17551307 (ISSN) 17551315 (eISSN)

Vol. 1078 1 012088

SBE BERLIN 022
Berlin, Germany,

Subject Categories

Architectural Engineering

Social and Economic Geography

Environmental Management

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Building Futures (2010-2018)

DOI

10.1088/1755-1315/1078/1/012088

More information

Latest update

10/20/2022