Carbon footprint from road transport use in Kolkata city

doi:10.1016/j.trd.2014.08.004

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment

Volume 32, October 2014, Pages 397-410

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2014.08.004 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Carbon footprint from road transport use of households in Kolkata city is estimated.
•
One of the objectives is to see how the footprint changes across income categories.
•
Second objective is to find factors that drive changes in the footprint values.
•
There is a clear link between people’s affluence and average per capita footprint.
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Per capita income, transport expenditure and vehicle ownership drive changes in footprint values.

Abstract

Carbon footprint is intricately related with the consumption and lifestyle pattern of individuals. The transport sector is one of the major sectors that effects lifestyle in a significant way and is the major contributor towards the city emissions. This paper attempts to estimate the carbon footprint arising from household’s use of road transport in the city of Kolkata across various income categories. The objective is to see how the footprint changes across income categories and also what factors drive changes in the footprint values across the defined income categories. The study has been based on primary surveys done across the city of Kolkata by choosing about 500 households across various income classes defined. Estimation of carbon footprint shows a clear picture of the relation between people’s affluence and the average per capita footprint. It clearly shows that per capita footprint from transport use increases with income. Further results show that income, vehicle ownership and per capita transport expenditure has significant and positive impact on per capita footprint of households from road transport use.

Introduction

The term carbon footprint is a relatively new concept, and can be generally described as the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with any anthropogenic activity. However, in many cases, for simplicity, we consider only carbon-di-oxide emissions, while measuring carbon footprint. Driven by a widespread use in the academic literature, carbon footprint has now become a synonym for the climate change impact of individuals, communities, nations or any specific activity. Carbon footprint is intricately related with the consumption and lifestyle pattern of individuals. This is because the kind of food consumed by the people, the way cooking is done at homes, the transport that is being used, or the kind of appliance ownership at homes, all these activities generate significant energy consumption and emissions. It is not urbanisation per se, that contribute to GHG emissions, but rather the way in which people move around the city, the way in which people use energy at home, that make cities the great consumers of energy and polluters that they are. India is a developing country with huge growth potential. Energy consumption patterns widely vary across different cities and income groups in the country. There is a strong middle-class, growing at a faster pace than the overall population with high consumption aspirations. With changing income distribution pattern and changing socio-economic profile of people, lifestyle pattern of the metropolitan cities of developing countries are changing rapidly. Kolkata is one such city which according to a report by ICLEI South Asia, 2009 is the largest emitter of carbon di-oxide among 41 key main metropolitan cities across India, with total emissions of around 9.3 million tonnes (in absolute terms). The transportation sector is the major contributor towards the city emissions.

As India undergoes fast economic growth, energy consumption and GHG emissions in the transport sector would increase exponentially given the growth in population, changes in income distribution pattern, scale of urban expansion and continued quest of improving living standards. Over the period 1991–2005, energy consumption from urban transport in 23 major urban areas (million plus cities) in India became more than double, growing from 103 to 209 PJ, and carbon emissions increased from 7.9 to 15.3 Mt (Li Jun, 2011). The city of Kolkata in 2010 registered emissions to the tune of 1.8 million tons from road transport itself, with the maximum emissions coming from diesel operated vehicles (Guttikunda and Jawahar, 2012). According to a CSE report (2011), in Kolkata, the cars and two wheelers together already use up about 40 per cent of the total energy consumption of the city’s road transport.

Against this background, this paper attempts to estimate the carbon footprint arising from household’s use of road transport in the city of Kolkata across various income categories. The objective is to see how the footprint changes across income categories and also what factors drive changes in the footprint values across the defined income categories.

Section snippets

Literature review

In the past two decades, the role of consumers and their consumption patterns have attracted increasing attention and discussion among researchers. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report for policymakers, Working Group III has mentioned in its report that Changes in lifestyles and consumption patterns that emphasize resource conservation can contribute to developing a low-carbon economy that is both equitable and sustainable. In the late 1980s, some researchers brought the

A brief review of Kolkata’s road transport situation

Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal state in the eastern part of India with a population of about 4.5 million (as per provisional reports of Census India, 2011) making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. Although the city has a population of 4.5 million; its urban/metropolitan population is over 14 million. Kolkata city, which is under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), has an area of 185 km². The KMC oversees and manages the civic infrastructure of the

Methodology

In this paper, there are three different methodological parts. The first part involves choosing a representative sample of households for conducting the primary survey. For this purpose, a questionnaire has been designed which captures the household lifestyle pattern

Sampling

500 households have been chosen across the city of Kolkata. Households have been selected based on the following methodology

a.
There are a total of 141 administrative wards across Kolkata, managed by the KMC.
b.
Based on their geographical locations, these 141 wards have been divided into four blocks-North, South, East and West. On the basis of this specification, North Kolkata has 40 wards, East and West Kolkata have 31 wards each and South Kolkata comprising of 39 wards.
c.
For each ward, data for total

Survey findings

On the basis of the survey methodology, the selected 40 wards are shown in Fig. 3. Survey results shows that the average household size in KMC area is 3.8 and about 73 per cent of households have three to five family members. However, household size in some locations is as big as 6–10 members. The average household income per month in the study area is about Rs. 30,000 ($500)². On the other hand the average per capita income for the study area is around Rs. 8552 ($142.5).

Summary and conclusion

It is now widely observed that lifestyle pattern of the metropolitan cities of developing countries are changing rapidly. With changing income distribution pattern and changing socio-economic profile of people, lifestyle pattern of the metropolitan cities of developing countries are gradually converging the developed country counterparts. While countries are undergoing fast economic growth and profound societal transformation, energy consumption and GHG emissions in the transport sector is

Acknowledgement

I am thankful to University Grants Commission (UGC), India for giving me the grant of Post Doctoral Fellowship, without the financial help of which, I would have been unable to conduct the surveys in Kolkata city. I am thankful to my friends Manisha Chakraborty of Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata and Saubhik Deb of World Bank to provide me help with the econometric part of the study.

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Carbon footprint from road transport use in Kolkata city

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Literature review

A brief review of Kolkata’s road transport situation

Methodology

Sampling

Survey findings

Summary and conclusion

Acknowledgement

Energy Policy

Energy Policy

Energy

Energy Policy

Energy

Energy Policy

Energy Policy

Energy Policy

Energy