Abstract
This article investigates the influence of age structure on CO2 emissions from household road transport by using an extended STIRPAT model plus data from 380 Norwegian municipalities for 2009, 2011 and 2013. After controlling for population, household income, age structures, household size, and different urban forms (urbanization, urban density, housing type, building density), the paper reveals that the age group responsible for the highest CO2 emissions is 50–69, followed by 20–34 and 35–49. Moreover, compared with other groups, the road transport activities of age group 35–49 are highly constrained by household income. The paper also shows that there is an inverted U-shape relationship between household CO2 road-related emissions and building densities. However, it indicates certain limitations on city planners when it comes to reducing household CO2 road-related emissions by bringing the downtown area closer. Moreover, the paper also identifies a so-called compensatory mechanism supporting the hypothesis that building densities have positive effects. Furthermore, the coefficient of low-density housing is positive and significant, implying that the private gardens of low-density housing might not be the reason for the hypothesized compensatory mechanism. However, this remains a question worth investigating.
Highlights
It is accepted that household road transport activities are critical to the sustainability of European cities
The positive elasticity of the log of building density result implies that people living in areas of high building density produce more CO2 road-related emissions than others living in areas of low building density, which is consistent with the observed facts of the so-called compensatory mechanism hypothesis, suggesting that those living in densely populated urban areas with only a limited need for everyday transport tend to undertake longer journeys in their leisure time as a compensation for their limited access to an outdoor area (Holden and Norland, 2005)
This article has investigated the influence of age structure on household road transport CO2 emissions by using an extended STIRPAT model with 2009, 2011, and 2013 data from 380 Norwegian municipalities
Summary
It is accepted that household road transport activities are critical to the sustainability of European cities. The failure to identify different road transport behaviour patterns among age groups could be one reason, because most researchers implicitly assume that all age groups have the same road energy consumption mode given the same income level. This assumption is questionable because different age groups have different activities. By integrating the indirect effects of the age structure as well, this paper examines the effects of age structure on the household road environment using an extended STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology) model covering data from 380 Norwegian municipalities in 2009, 2011 and 2013.
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