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Indicator Specification
Transport is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases and also gives rise to significant air pollution, which can seriously damage human health and ecosystems. The indicator helps to understand developments in the passenger transport sector (transport's 'magnitude' and transport patterns), which in turn explains observed trends in transport's impact on the environment.
The relevance of the modal split policy for environmental impact of passenger transport arises from differences in environmental performance (resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, pollutant and noise emissions, land consumption, accidents etc.) of transport modes. These differences are becoming smaller on a passenger-km basis, which makes it increasingly difficult to determine the direct and future overall environmental effects of modal shifting. The total environmental effect of modal shifting can in fact only be determined on a case-by-case basis, where local circumstances and specific local environmental effects can be taken into account (e.g. transport in urban areas or over long distances).
The outlook presents plausible future of transport developments in pan-European region and can be used for estimation of passenger transport impact on environment (particularly when it comes to transport contribution to climate change). It helps to assess achievability of targets and identify appropriate policy response options for making transportation more sustainable.
Definition: Passenger transport demand is the total number of kilometres travelled by persons in a given year by all modes of transport (taxis, buses, trolleybuses, trams, underground, trains, inland water transport, maritime transport and airplanes) and by private transport. It can also be presented as a breakdown of total passenger transport demand by mode (modal split: the share of each mode in total transport demand).
Model used: PRIMES
Ownership: European Environment Agency
Temporal coverage: 1990 - 2030
Geographical coverage: EU25: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Czech republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia
The volume of the passenger transport is measured in the passenger-kilometre traveled (pkm), which represents one passenger traveling a distance of one kilometre.
The large number of non binding policy instruments have been developed under fora such as Environment for Europe process, the European Council of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) and the UNECE/WTO Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (The PEP). The PEP was set up to address the key challenges to achieve more sustainable transport patterns and a closer integration of environmental and health concerns into transport policies.
The EU has set itself the objective to reduce the link between economic growth and passenger transport demand ('decoupling') in order to achieve more sustainable transport.
Reducing the link between transport growth and GDP is a central theme in EU transport policy for reducing the negative impacts from transport:
Shifting transport from road to rail is an important strategic element in the EU transport policy. The objective was first formulated in the Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS). In the review of the T&E integration strategy in 2001 and 2002, the Council states that the modal split should remain stable for at least the next ten years, even with further traffic growth.
In the White Paper on the Common Transport Policy (CTP) "European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide", the modal shift is central and the Commission proposes measures aimed at the modal shift.
The White Paper on the Common Transport Policy also says that common transport policy alone will not provide all the answers. It must be part of an overall strategy integrating sustainable development, to include: a) economic policy and changes in the production process that influence demand for transport; b) land-use planning policy and in particular town planning; c) social and education policy; d) urban transport policy; e) budgetary and fiscal policy to, to link the internalisation of external, and especial environmental, costs with competition of trans-European network; f) competition policy, to ensure, in line with the objectives of high-quality public services, and in particularly in rail sector, that the opening-up of market is not harmed by the dominant companies already present on market; g) research policy for transport in Europe.
The European Neighbourhood Policy stressed that generating more trade and tourism between the Union and its neighbours, requires efficient, multimodal and sustainable transport systems. EU should develop an Actions plan for cooperation with its neighbors to improve the physical transport networks connecting the Union with neighboring countries, to step up aviation relations with partner countries with the aim to open up markets and to co-operate on safety and security issues. The Action Plans will also contain specific provisions to address the vulnerability of transport networks and services vis-A-vis terrorist attacks. The highest attention will be paid to enhance the security of air and maritime transport.
EECCA Environmental Strategy recognizes the need to incorporate environmental concerns into transport policies and sets this action as one of the Strategy objectives.
One of the actions selected by THE PEP is 'demand side management and modal shift and with special attention to the needs of the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) and of South-Eastern Europe, as well as issues related to ecologically particularly sensitive areas'.
Structural goals and targets
Global
Pan-European level
EU
EECCA
Efficiency targets
EU
EECCA
Link to other policy goals and targets
Pan-European
EU
EECCA
The indicator of the Passenger transport activity is produced using the transport module of PRIMES model. The model covers the horizon from 1990 to 2030 with 5 years periods.
PRIMES is a partial equilibrium model for the European Union energy system developed by, and maintained at, The National Technical University of Athens, E3M-Laboratory. The most recent version of the model used in the calculations covers each of the EU Member States, EU candidate countries and Neighbouring countries, uses Eurostat as the main data source, and is updated with 2000 as the base year. The PRIMES model is the result of collaborative research under a series of projects supported by the Joule programme of the Directorate General for Research of the European Commission.
The transport module of PRIMES has been developed to study mainly the penetration of new transport technologies and their effects on emissions, besides the evaluation of the energy consumption and emissions in the transport sector. The emphasis is on the use of car technologies and on the long term (2030). The model structure is kept deliberately simple as it is made to interact as demand module with supply modules (refineries, new fuel production) of PRIMES.
The transport sector distinguishes passenger transport and goods transport as separate sectors. They are further subdivided in sub-sectors according to the transport mode (road, air, etc.). At the level of the sub-sectors, the model structure defines several technology types (car technology types, for example), which correspond to the level of energy use.
The overall demand for transport (passenger kilometres, ton kilometres) is determined by income/activity growth and by the overall price of transport. The overall price of transport is determined endogenously, as a function of the modal split and of the price per mode. The split of the overall transport activity over the different modes is driven by the price per mode and by behavioural and structural parameters. The price per mode depends on the choice of technology for new investment and on past investment for each transport mode. The technologies for new investment are chosen, based on the lowest expected usage costs.
The stock of vehicles inherited from the previous period is expanded in function of the transport needs per mode. The new stock composition determines the stock for the next period and influences the aggregate price per mode.
For more information see: http://www.e3mlab.ntua.gr/DEFAULT.HTM
No methodology for gap filling has been specified. Probably this info has been added together with indicator calculation.
No uncertainty has been specified
No uncertainty has been specified
The relevance of the modal split policy for environmental impact of passenger transport arises from differences in environmental performance (resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, pollutant and noise emissions, land consumption, accidents etc.) of transport modes. These differences are becoming smaller on a passenger-km basis, which makes it increasingly difficult to determine the direct and future overall environmental effects of modal shifting. The total environmental effect of modal shifting can in fact only be determined on a case-by-case basis, where local circumstances and specific local environmental effects can be taken into account (e.g. transport in urban areas or over long distances).
Work specified here requires to be completed within 1 year from now.
Work specified here will require more than 1 year (from now) to be completed.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/passenger-transport-demand-outlook-from-eea or scan the QR code.
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