Road project opportunity costs subject to a regional constraint on greenhouse gas emissions

• Published in: Journal of environmental management Vol. 112; pp. 292 - 303
• Main Authors: Martin, Jean-Christophe, Point, Patrick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 15.12.2012; Elsevier; Academic Press Ltd
• Subjects: Air Pollution; Air Pollution - analysis; analysis; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Carbon emissions; Carbon sequestration; climate; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Economic activity; Economic-environmental impact; Economics and Finance; Emissions; energy; Environmental impact studies; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Monitoring - methods; France; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; funding; General aspects; Greenhouse Effect; Greenhouse gas emissions; greenhouse gases; Humanities and Social Sciences; Input-output analysis; methods; Minimum disruption approach; Opportunity cost; opportunity costs; Power demand; road construction; Road transport; Sustainability; traffic; France, Aquitaine; France; Road transport; Economic-environmental impact; Opportunity cost; Input–output analysis; Greenhouse gas emissions; Minimum disruption approach; Costs; Input-output analysis; Highway; Regional; Environmental management; Input output analysis; Greenhouse gas; Environment impact; Economic impact; Transport
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.07.016

France has constrained the Aquitaine region to set up a climate plan to avoid an emission of 2883 ktCO2eq for the period 2007–2013. In parallel, the region has decided to carry out the construction of road infrastructures in order to avoid very high congestion costs. Those road projects will involve an increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during that period. In the present context of strong sustainability, all emissions (direct and indirect) generated by those projects should be offset. At the regional level, the offsetting of GHG emissions is usually carried out by implementing carbon sequestration projects or projects that reduce energy demand. This paper aims at determining the maximum budget for financing GHG emissions offsetting projects, with computation being based on the opportunity costs of projects, the minimum cost of economic activity reduction required to offset emissions from those projects. The maximum budget devoted to GHG emissions offsetting projects should not exceed €2001 1920 M to €2001 3592 M, according to low/high traffic growth assumptions. ► We model economic and environmental impacts of road infrastructure construction at regional level. ► A climate plan leads to offsetting road project GHG emissions. ► The opportunity cost of road projects subject to a climate plan is calculated.