As the world’s most populous country continues to grow, ensuring that India’s transport systems develop sustainably is critical. Carl Adler reports on a new tool that delivers the practical insights we need to decarbonise transport on the planet’s third-largest road network.
Why life-cycle assessment for transport?
ITF’s new life-cycle assessment (LCA) tool shapes policies to decarbonise Indian transport. LCA allows stakeholders to see the cradle-to-grave emissions of a given mode of transport. Using the LCA tool, a user could, for example, see that a vehicle which is energy-efficient or even “zero emission” when being used may use large amounts of fossil fuels in other stages of the vehicle’s life.
LCA was previously identified as a gap in Indian transport policymaking through ITF’s scoping work. Considering only emissions during a vehicle’s operation omits the emissions produced during the vehicle’s production and related infrastructure. According to a 2021 ITF scoping paper on decarbonising Indian transport, factors not included in tailpipe emissions may be responsible for 30% of additional emissions from a car being driven on urban roads (on a per vehicle kilometre basis). As tailpipe emissions continue to reduce or even reach “zero”, emissions from these other stages of a vehicle’s life will become even more important to consider in policymaking. With LCA, these additional emissions can be factored in, and stakeholders can see the total emissions of any vehicle.
An LCA tool tailored to a given country’s specificities is important for several reasons. The types of vehicles used differ across countries and regions. India, for example, has far more two- and three-wheelers than North America or Europe. Additionally, the fuel sources a country uses to produce energy often differ. According to the IEA, over 80% of India’s electricity comes from coal, oil and solid biomass. Other factors, such as the conditions in which a vehicle operates and the processes and materials used during manufacturing, differ in different countries. The ITF Transport Life-cycle Assessment Tool for India is made for India and considers all of these aspects.
Lessons learned in developing the ITF Transport Life-cycle Assessment Tool for India
To support evidence-based policymaking, decision makers need to understand the LCA tool’s outputs so that they can be incorporated into policy decisions. To make the tool as useful as possible, it was designed to be relevant to the multiple levels of government (local, regional, national) that decide the kinds of vehicles to use to move people through the country.
ITF’s LCA tool has also generated great interest within India’s academic community. Feedback from multiple stakeholders allowed ITF to design a tool that’s easy to use: for example, it features default values for all variables to reduce the burden on the user. However, most parameters within the LCA tool are still customisable. Researchers wanting to take a deep dive into specific mobility scenarios can do so by changing variables within the tool.
The tool is launched with a technical study, which provides reference values for common scenarios and vehicles in India. This allows the tool to be used without sourcing additional data and will enable users who may not have a transport research background to use the tool and access the wealth of evidence LCA can provide.
Next steps
The ITF’s LCA tool is freely available on the ITF website to be used by both transport analysts and researchers, as well as for policy development. This allows researchers to access LCA when doing their work and provide policy makers with important, easily digestible information that will assist them in choosing low-carbon transport modes and could assist India in reaching its goal of being net-zero by 2070.
LCA is an essential component of creating policies that encourage decarbonisation. It is an important part of sound and holistic policymaking, and the ITF’s Life-cycle Analysis Tool for India fills in gaps in the process in a country that desperately needs a clean, low-carbon future.
Join the ITF team and our stakeholders in India to find out more about developing decarbonisation policies for India and how the LCA tool can make a difference where it matters! Register here to join the virtual launch event on 23 August.
The event includes:
- Findings and recommendations
- Relevance for Indian policy
- Industry and carbon credits programmes
- Takeaways for climate-oriented financing
- Questions and answers session
Carl Adler graduated with a Master’s in governance from Sciences Po Paris’ Urban School in 2022. He has a keen interest in all things urban and transport-related and manages digital content at the International Transport Forum.
The ITF’s LCA tool was developed as a part of the NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA). This project is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) supports the initiative based on a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is responsible for co-ordinating the implementation of the Initiative.
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