Ezra's Round Table/Systems Seminar: Andreas Kopp (World Bank) - How to Increase Transports Role in Climate Policies and How to Install it in Public Decision Making

Friday, February 21, 2014 at 12:00pm Frank H. T. Rhodes Hall, 253 Ezra's Round Table/Systems Seminar: Andreas Kopp (World Bank) - How to Increase Transports Role in Climate Policies and How to Install it in Public Decision Making National and international climate policy is confronted with an increasing gap between expectations that transport should de-carbonize and a small role in climate policies. The presentation will argue that this has to do with the high sectoral costs of climate policies and an undue focus on technical change. The relative costs of transport interventions decrease if climate policy in transport is seen in the context of a broad reform agenda including the social costs of congestion, local air pollution and road safety problems in particular. An important mechanism to change transport-related decision making by the World Bank and public policy makers more generally is to change ex ante evaluation of transport policies and projects. The reduction of GHG emissions goes beyond the impact of a narrow sector agenda if the reduction of time losses in congestion, health costs due to local air pollution and transport accidents become part of the net project benefits reported in project evaluation. The presentation will sketch how this will be done for World Bank projects.