ZEW Presents Research Results at UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn

ZEW environmental economists presented research findings from current projects at the annual UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, an event which sets the course for the 23rd Climate Change Conference (COP23) at the end of the year. In the run-up to COP23, which will also take place in Bonn in late 2017, ZEW organised an event in cooperation with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), entitled „Strengthening Leadership on Low-Carbon Transport to Deliver Long-Term Climate Goals“, on 16 May 2017. The event took as its main focus the significance of the transport sector in the pursuit of meeting global climate targets.

How can greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector be reduced in an efficient and effective way? This was the question addressed by ZEW economist Kathrine von Graevenitz, PhD, who discussed the role of CO₂ pricing in ensuring long-term reductions in CO₂ emissions in the transport sector. On the basis of current ZEW research findings, she gave an outline of the potential practical feasibility of integrating transport emissions into the European Emissions Trading Scheme, claiming that this would result in increased efficiency compared to the current approach. According to von Graevenitz, it is necessary to price the actual CO₂ emissions resulting from transport services, otherwise the transformation to a low carbon economy could end up being significantly more expensive than necessary. She also added that further measures were still necessary to address the other negative effects of transport vehicles such as local air pollutants, congestion and road accidents.

ZEW team researching consumer willingness to pay voluntary climate protection fees

In addition, von Graevenitz highlighted the importance of additional voluntary efforts to curb climate change, offering a glimpse at current ZEW research on consumer behaviour relating to CO₂ offset payments in the inter-urban long-distance bus market. This research is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). On the basis of a field experiment she pointed to the importance of framing the question whether to offset emissions. The experiment revealed that customers of a long-distance bus operator were not only concerned with the CO₂ price when deciding whether to agree to the voluntary offset payment or not.

Potential for further research on emissions and the transport sector

As the event came to a close, Dr. Martin Kesternich, deputy head of the ZEW Research Department "Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management", summarised the growing interest at ZEW in applied research into the implementation of specific measures in the transport sector. He stated that there was a considerable need for more research in the area of transport, an issue which the ZEW would be addressing through future empirically-based programme evaluations in order to achieve a better understanding of how different agents react to particular stimuli. The event, in which seven speakers addressed an audience of 50 attendees, thus provided a platform to discuss current challenges in the struggle to reduce CO₂ emissions in the transport sector and to share experiences of implementing specific measures to achieve this aim.