Abstract
Abstract This paper compares the energy consumption, CO2 emissions and public policies of two mega-cities, Sao Paulo (SP) and Shanghai (SH), in order to identify their GHG emissions mitigation policies. Both cities have experienced rapid growth of the automotive sectors resulting in sizable pollution and CO2 emission challenges. SP has successfully implemented the ethanol and encouraged the growth of the fleet of light-duty vehicles. SH has coal-based power generation and restricted the ownership of the vehicles in an attempt to reduce GHG emissions, invested in public transportation and electric mobility. Tabular analysis of secondary data was adopted in this study, revealing also that SP has considerably expanded individual transportation. Despite investments in ethanol, the city could not contain the increase in CO2 emissions from road transportation. SH invested in public transportation and inhibited individual transportation, but also failed to contain CO2 emissions. Mitigation policies and measures taken were not sufficient to prevent growth of CO2 emissions in both cities. To reduce CO2 emissions in transportation, SP and SH should focus on public policies to encourage public and clean transportation and limit the burning of fossil fuels.
Highlights
Urban centers are major greenhouse gas (GHG) sources, since cities produced about 75% of global CO2 emissions in 2008, with transportation as a major contributor regarding energy use and emissions (IEA, 2008; UNEP, 2015)
The applied methodology will allow assessing which of the fleets consumes more energy and emits more CO2, what kind of transportation each city prioritizes, what are the strategies of each city to reduce CO2 emissions, and how do we evaluate these strategies in light of the obvious differences in size, urban form and rates of economic and other forms of growth
The comparative analysis of CO2 emissions between SH and Sao Paulo (SP) indicated that mitigation policies and measures taken in that period were not sufficient to prevent the growth of CO2 emissions in both cities
Summary
Urban centers are major greenhouse gas (GHG) sources, since cities produced about 75% of global CO2 emissions in 2008, with transportation as a major contributor regarding energy use and emissions (IEA, 2008; UNEP, 2015). In 2012, road vehicles were responsible for 90% of the energy consumed in transportation, and light-duty vehicles (LDV) accounted for 64% of this amount (IEA, 2015). Motorized road transportation imposes a great burden on the health of the population, resulting in more than 1.5 million deaths annually around the world (The World Bank Group, 2014). These impacts are visible in larger cities, with Sao Paulo (SP) in Brazil and Shanghai (SH) in China being two good examples regarding emerging economic and increasing population in developing countries. In SP, the rate of mortality due to air pollution is three times higher than those caused by traffic accidents (China, 2015; Vormittag et al, 2013)
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