AUTOMOBILE ENERGY POLICY

BY
SOHAM ACHARYA

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CONTENT

Can urban rail transit curb automobile energy

consumption? By Boqiang Lin and Zhili Du.

How biofuel policies backfire: Misguided goals,

inefficient mechanisms, and
political-ecological blind spots. ByGustavo de L.T.
Oliveira, Ben McKay, Christina Plank.

World's climate policy: Facing an automobile

dilemma. By Stefan Gssling and Daniel Metzler.

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PAPER NO. 1:-

Transportation is an important link between production and consumption,

supporting social and economic activities The transport sector consumes lots
of primary and secondary energy sources such as coal, gasoline, diesel, fuel
oil, natural gas, heat, and electricity.

According to 2008 data compiled by the International Energy Agency

(IEA), the energy consumption of the global transport sector accounted
for 29.6% of total energy consumption, and the proportion of the
sector's energy consumption in 25-nation European region is about
29%. While the proportion is about 27% for Japan, it is more than 35%
in all 34 OECD countries.

According to the IEA, oil consumption in the transport sector accounts for
50% of the world's total oil consumption.On the other hand, high energy
consumption in the transportation sector means high pollution and
emissions.
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STATISTICS:-

The main inference is that maximum stress falls in the oil and natural gas sector.

Many non OPEC countries including India and China have to outsource their
oil in which a large chunk of GDP is cashed out.

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MEASURES TAKEN :-
With increase in economic condition it has been seen that road traffic increased
and it applied more strain on environment.

To curb this various devloped countries focused much on Urban Rail Transit
as a sustainable devolpment mission.

The development of urban rail transit has provided a creative and

more effective mode of transportation, but whether the construction of urban
rail transit will effectively curb the growth of car ownership and restrain the
energy consumption of automobiles is yet to be known.

From the perspective of rail transit and environment, the construction of rail
transit is considered to be an effective measure to solve the current urban traffic
congestion and air pollution. But traditional research is often undermined by
estimation error caused by endogeneity. Adler and Ommeren (2015) examined
one of the Main benefits of public transit - a reduction in car congestion
externalities, the so-called congestion relief benefit - using quasinatural
experimental data on city wide public transit strikes for Rotterdam, a city with
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mild congestion levels.
In general, the current research on rail transit is mainly focused on the impact of rail
transit operation on the prices of surrounding land and house, as well as the impact on
the environment and pollutant emissions. There are also studies analyzing and
estimating the costs of rail transit construction and operation.

RESULTS::
In US Federal government has approved the laying 400KM of rail tracks in
Indian States of Arizona and Texas in order to curb the CO2 emmission and
henceforth bringing more strict emmission norms.
In China also same type of measure has been taken in order to suppress the
rising demands of rising fuel price and henceforth restructuring energy policy.
In India also same suit is followed by implementing BS 4 without any
premeditation.

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PAPER NO. 2:-
Biofuel policies have been controversially discussed worldwide during the last decade.
How biofuels transform the agricultural market if they can become profitable, and how
much land would be necessary to achieve the different blending targets set by various
countries havebeen major points of concern.

We find that biofuel policies in major producer and consumer blocs are not in fact
developed and implemented according to environmental or inclusive pro-poor
development purposes that currently serve as the main discourses promoting them, but
rather according to a tense alliance between major corporate sectors particularly
agroindustrial traders and processors, petroleum extraction and refinery, and
automotive industry.

When the earliest automobiles were being developed, biodiesel,ethanol, and biofuel
gasoline blends were pervasive. Ford's Model T,for example, could be adjusted to run
on ethanol, gasoline, or agasohol blend that made it a truly flex-fuel vehicle.
However, multiple factors during the early 20th century led to the predominance of
gasoline use, including state policies that supported the expansion of the fossil fuel and
automotive industry (Smil, 2010a), and with the discovery of the anti-knock properties
of tetraethyl lead in 1921, ethanol-blends were largely abandoned as a fuel oxygenate

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It was only with increasing restrictions on unleaded fuel oxygenates (such as methyl
tertiary butyl ether MTBE), the emergence of a powerful agroindustrial lobby for corn
based ethanol production during the 1980s

Concurrently, environmentalist concerns over greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions that

developed during the 1990s have since become an important discursive instrument to
promote the biofuel economy,but the strategic importance of the agroindustrial sector
and cheap fuel still result in government policies that prioritize security of supply
and boosting agroindustrial profits over environmental or social concerns.

The implementation of biofuel policy backfired on its own.Mainly due to high

global taxation and annhilation effort to wipe out the corn lobby.

Environmentalist NGOs and rural social movements have placed the sector
on the defensive about its negative impacts on deforestation, land
concentration and degradation, and labour exploitation.In response, the
sugarcane-ethanol industry association (UNICA) remarks that only about 1.4%
of total arable land is devoted to sugarcane for ethanol use, seemingly
rendering the land questions relatively insignificant for biofuels production in
Brazil.

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Conclusion and policy implications
Mass is invested in conventional energy sources.so to bring them back lucrative
policies are in shape.

Biofuel policies and production practices stall significantly when major corporate
sectors are in tension with oneanother, when state concerns over food security
predominate, and when opportunities for maximizing profits appear limited or become
challenged, as in moments of low oil prices and demands for greater and more
democratic socio-ecological benefits from energy policies .

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PAPER NO. 3:-
A large and growing share of global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) are a result
of transport, a sector that is currently contributing 23% of total global energy-related
CO2 emissions.
Main contributor of these catastrophe is excessive emmission from automobiles. and the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that without significant
transport climate policies, the sector's emissions could double by 2050 and triple by
2100.
All countries have pledged to lead international mitigation efforts and to reduce
emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020 and by 8095% by 2050, relative to 1990 levels.

The IPCC (2014) suggests that overall emission reductions between 4050% will be
needed by mid-century to limit global warming within safe guardrails, defined as 2 C
warming above pre-industrial levels.
GHG emissions continue to rise globally, and specifically in the transport sector . Car
ownership has grown consistently, with estimates that there are now more than 907
million passenger cars in the world, up from 679 million in 2006. To achieve reductions
in energy use in the transport sector, the IPCC suggests that various measures will be
needed, including fuel carbon and energy intensity improvements, infrastructure
development, behavioural change and comprehensive policy implementation.
This creates a dillemma as government subsidies to enrich automobile manufacturers
in different countries have bought down the car prices.
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To reduce the emmission various EU countries have slashed funding which have
increased the automobile prices which in tern forced the people to use unconventional
energy sources like air ,water even electricity.
Directly one cannot curb the automobile manufacturing as moreover 3 billion
workforce all over the world is directly related to it,according to SIAM.
The table below deals with type,age and distance travelled by various fuel powered
cars.

This study shows that the share of alternative fuel powered cars share is very less.
Next table will deal with the percentage contribution of various fuel powered cars.

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Data also reveals that there is considerable variation in fuel use between car models: to
drive 100 km, reported fuel use varies by more than a factor four over the whole range
of car models, most of which fall between 4 and 12 l per 100 km .Notably, data also
reveals that fuel use differences between car models with identical engine size
power can be a factor 34. Engine power is a more consistent predictor of fuel use than
engine size, though this data set does not consider the importance of driving styles or
urban-rural-highway mobility distributions, which can have a considerable relevance
for fuel use.
As per the data received governments of various countries cracked down on cars
above 10-15 years older.As recent datas have revealed that cars more than 10 years older
emits more GHG than the newer ones.
Statistics also suggest that motorization and car weight continue to grow, reducing
potential fuel efficiency gains. High shares of company cars are likely to support
inefficient driving styles, while there is also a significant share of inefficient cars older
than 10 years used to cover more than a quarter of all distances. Further insights can be
gained from the analysis of mobility and fuel diaries, revealing that engine power is
correlated with transport distance, and that the most frequent drivers have the least
efficient driving styles. Car model choices also affect fuel use, as vast differences in fuel
use were revealed for cars with identical motorization. Inefficient car choices, driving
styles and travel distances are also significantly influenced by the (currently low) cost of
fuel.

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EMMISION STANDARDS AND ENERGY LABELS;
Energy labels for cars were introduced in Germany in December 2011 to enable
consumer friendly choices (KBA)These follow the EU energy label, i.e. a colour scheme
denoting climatically less (red or G) or more sustainable choices (dark green or A+).

Electric car subsidies are another political measure to increase the share of more
efficient, low-carbon cars in the national fleet. The initiative, introduced in April 2016,
will be subsidized with close to one billion Euro until 2019 .Whether this will lead to the
introduction of 1 million electric cars in the national car fleet by 2020 is questionable,
however it also highlight that more efficient cars replacing less efficient cars will be
driven more.
Results discussed here suggest that despite far reaching technological progress in car
engine technology, absolute emissions from the transport sector have remained stable
over a quarter of a century as a result of insufficient national climate policies for the
road transport sector that consider interrelationships of car fleet development, driver
behaviour, and corresponding fuel use distributions. Policy-makers seeking to make a
difference would have to address these interrelationships, including aspects related to
production (car motorization and weight development), traffic laws (speed limits), and
transport policy (fleet renewal, company cars and fuel cost).

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Emissions from road transport have remained constant over two and a half decades,
and continued growth in transport volumes is expected. This raises the question as to
whether significant emission reductions in the road transport sector are attainable: such
reductions would be a precondition for the countries to meet their national mitigation
goals. Policy makers have started to realize that they face an 'automobile dilemma',
though they have also expressed
optimism that a range of policy initiatives will aid decarbonisation efforts, including
emission standards for newly registered cars, energy labels, and subsidies for electric
cars. Findings suggest, however, that these measures are not significant enough, as they
overlook complexities in car fleet structure and renewal, as well as car use patterns and
driving styles. Results also show that the factors underlying growth in fuel use,
including motorization, car weight/mass developments, and fuel cost, are not
addressed by policy makers.
Three specific aspects of policy making seem relevant in this situation: First of all,
current policies with ambiguous outcomes need to be addressed. This includes the
energy label for cars, which is counterproductive in aiding consumer choices; the
widespread practice of company car benefits; as well as the no-speed limit policy
on highways. Second, policies need to address growing motorization and car
weight/mass developments, which are linked to transport volume growth and
counteract fuel efficiency gains. Third,the cost of fuel needs to reflect the 'true' cost of
mobility and there is a need to more systemically encourage purchases of
cars with alternative propulsion technologies.
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