This article analyzes road transport in India to explore linkages between air pollution and climate change policies in the transportation sector. Five teams modeled five policy scenarios – fuel efficiency, electrification, alternative fuels, modal shifts, and moderation in transport demand – to explore which policy brings the largest synergetic effects in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions. The teams also modeled the comprehensive scenario which included policy measures from individual scenarios. The paper concludes that all of the measures provide strong co-benefits in reducing air pollutants and CO2 emissions. The modeling results show that the increased energy efficiency of passenger and freight vehicles has the largest potential for reducing both CO2 and PM2.5 emissions. It is possible to reach an even larger reduction of air pollutants and CO2 emissions by combining several policy measures in the comprehensive scenario.
(Nazar Kholod, Vaibhav Chaturvedi, Probal Pratap Ghosh, Ritu Mathur, Shikha Bali, Anshuman Behera, Sakshi Chamola, Leon Clarke, Meredydd Evans, Russell Horowitz, Aakansha Jain, Poonam Nagar Koti, Sharif Qamar, and Swapnil Shekhar are the other authors of this paper)
