Transportation decarbonization requires life cycle-based regulations: Evidence from China's passenger vehicle sector

摘要

Designing efficient policies to mitigate the transport GHG emissions is pivotal to tackle climate change. Fuel economy standards with incentives for electric vehicles have been widely adopted in road transport to curb vehicle tailpipe emissions and encourage fleet technology transition. Using a fleet-based life cycle model for the passenger vehicle sector in China, we show that solely relying on tailpipe-based standards will not suffice to meet the sectoral goal of peaking its GHG emissions by 2030. Switching to a well-to-wheels based standard, in conjunction with complementary policy instruments to regulate the vehicle embedded emissions and low carbon fuel production, could effectively close the mitigation gap and achieve holistic GHG emissions reduction. Incorporating such life cycle assessment approaches into the regulatory framework should occur as soon as practicable to provide sufficient GHG emissions reduction so that the transport sector can contribute to the overall economy-wide carbon reduction commitment.