CASE STUDIES: LAT-AM CO2 REDUCTION


Sustainable transport planning & development

Helping a South American City beat its COP21 emissions targets


Challenge

An ambitious city in South America wanted to improve its greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing COP21 targets - with the ultimate objective of mitigating the negative impact on its social, environmental and healthcare systems and increasing overall competitiveness. The city had already made significant progress in power and waste management, but approached Precision to help with the reduction of CO2 emissions to a pre-1990 level. The transportation sector constitutes more than 30% of the CO2 emissions in Latin America. Our analysts had predicted that Latin American CO2 emissions from transportation will increase over 160% by 2050 and to compound that, South American cities are experiencing rapid population growth, of which 82% reside in urban areas. 


Scope of Work

Research & Analysis/Consultancy/Strategic Advisory/Workshop Planning/Reporting & Recommendations


Approach & Solution

1. Formulate advanced approaches for sustainable transport planning and development.

2. Aid development of a new, integrated low-carbon metropolitan policy.

3. Gather and elicit feedback from key government and industry stakeholders, as well as regulators to inform further steps and recommendations.

4. Provide a full recommendation to the mayor which include the concerns of both industry and the general public, modelling the potential impact of government policy on all stakeholders.

Precision’s sustainability team collaborated with the client to compile a list of emission abatement measures, including an analysis of cost, feasibility and potential impact.

They also generated citizen engagement, by encouraging participation in interviews, surveys and fundraisers, which had the added benefit of proliferating data. Coupled with a substantial body of work that the client had previously compiled, a foundation was built for effective strategic decision making.


Outcome

Amongst our proposals, we recommended encouraging behavioural change in a number of key areas and implementing changes of a commerical and technological nature (from congestion pricing to building retrofits). Based upon our calculations, we forecast that implementation of these recommendations would afford our client the opportunity to reduce emissions by 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) or more per year by 2030, on top of its already ambitious targets. Individual measures varied from a net cost of $400 per tCO2e to a net saving of $1,500 per tCO2e.

Overall, the assessments showed that the city could make a number of bold moves, including implementing building retrofits, introducing variably priced parking and increasing recycling and composting. Other measures would require further analysis - in terms of both their direct economic and their implications for health, safety, and productivity, etc. Other measures needed pilot projects to test their effectiveness. As a result of our recommendations and the measures the city is beginning to adopt, it now has an opportunity to implement a bold strategy to surpass its targets, continue to influence the national debate on climate change, and reinforce its leadership in the field.


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