Greenhouse Gas emission from Transportation associated with French Consumption: An input-output analysis approach

Abstract

This thesis applies the framework of input-output analysis to the transportation of goods driven by the consumption of French household.It was found that transportation of goods amounts to 7 % of the average 22,4 tons of CO2 emitted by French households and that78 % of the emissions occured inside the EU 15, France included.In fact, 92 % of the tons consumed by French households are produced inside the EU 15 and are mainly transported via roadwhereas the remaining tons, coming from other countries, are mainly transported by ships.Consequently, the carbon efficiency of the transportation inside the EU15 is low compared to imports from other countriessince road transportation emits 40 times more carbon dioxide per tonne-kilometer transported.This demonstrates the need for an ambitious policy of transfer from road to rail, water or maritime ways via the development of the appropriate infrastructure and the combination of theadvantages of the different modes, flexibility of the road transporation associated with mass and environmentally friendly transportation of rail, waterway and maritime mode.Furthermore, the study gives some knowledge on the indirect emissions associated with French households, which correspond to the combination of the emissions driven by the transportation of goods withthe emissions associated with the production of these goods. It was found that petroleum products, food related sectors and the coal sector are the main contributor of the indirect emissions associated with French households representing as much as 57 % of them. As a result, future studies should focus on those sectors in order to isolate path of improvement both in production, consumption and transportation patterns.