Long-Term Policy Scenarios for Transportation and the Paris Agreement

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to contribute to a Special Issue of Sustainability with the theme of “Long-Term Policy Scenarios for Transportation and the Paris Agreement”. In 2015, parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change agreed to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping global temperature rise, this century, well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C. To date, 180 parties have ratified the agreement.

For the transportation sector, it seems especially difficult to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The sector accounts for around 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and its share is growing. Recently, the International Transport Forum (OECD/ITF, 2018) reviewed so-called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of parties which ratified the Paris Agreement. In these NDCs parties formulated their climate ambitions. The review of ITF shows clearly that these NDCs are insufficient to meet the trajectory of the 2 °C scenario, let alone the more strict 1.5 °C scenario. According to OECD/ITF (2018) the Paris Climate Agreement must still be translated into concrete actions for transport.

Three levers for reducing transport greenhouse gas emissions are often distinguished in the literature: Improve vehicle technologies, use of low carbon fuels and reduce or change travel. What are foreseeable concrete actions in these levers which could bring the Paris Agreements Goals within sight? This Special Issue seeks new ideas from academia, think tanks and research institutes on these concrete actions. Special emphasis is given to long-term policy scenarios (both back-casting and forward-looking scenarios), ex-post analyses, modeling and social and political feasibility. We invite original papers, reviews, communications, and case studies that provide novel scientific ideas in the complex field of transportation and meeting the Paris Agreement Climate Goals.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

• Effective policies to stimulate vehicle technology which reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Effective policies to stimulate fuel technology which reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Effective policies to stimulate travel behavior change or reduce travel which reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Long-term scenarios combining all kinds of policies (both back-casting and forward-looking scenarios)
• Long-term scenarios for specific sectors (e.g., aviation, ocean-going shipping, specific regions) to meet the Paris Agreement
• Ex-post analysis of policies and scenarios to meet the ‘old’ Kyoto Protocol (worldwide climate change agreement 1997)

Dr. Jan Anne Annema
Prof. Dr. Bert van Wee
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Climate change
• Transport policies
• Long-term scenarios
• Ex-post analysis
• Social feasibility
• Political feasibility