Implications of transport decarbonization pathways on regional and community air quality

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Due to socioeconomic shifts and the need to achieve deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, Canada will experience an unprecedented transformation in its transportation sector. This transformation need not only mitigate climate change, but also enable community air quality benefits in an equitable manner. It is crucial that efforts to decarbonize the transportation sector be informed by the co-benefits of greenhouse gas reduction. Indeed, in Canada, 14,600 deaths per year are attributed to air pollution and the annual economic value of air pollution related health outcomes is approximately $114 billion. The recent World Health Organization announcement (October 2021) on tightening air quality guidelines further strengthens the importance of climate mitigation that improves air quality and public health. Alternative fuels, transport electrification, ride hailing, e-commerce, all carry promise for achieving climate benefits. However, the implications of these new transportation technologies and services on air quality and environmental justice are not well characterized, hindering our ability to identify win-win solutions. The proposed research program is aimed at helping Canadian industry, government, and communities, prioritise transportation innovations that will achieve low to zero emissions, while bearing positive societal impacts. To anticipate the effects of transportation innovations on climate, air quality, and environmental justice in Canadian cities and inform the transformation currently occurring in the transportation sector, the proposed research program will address knowledge gaps in 1) emission characteristics of new transportation technologies, 2) impacts of new vehicle technologies, active transportation, and altered human behavior on climate, air quality, and environmental equity, and 3) ability to monitor and track this transformation over time. Specifically, this research program has three objectives: Objective 1: Improve transportation emission inventories for greenhouse gases and air pollutants Objective 2: Enhance capability to model community-level air pollution and environmental justice under a set of long-term transport decarbonization pathways Objective 3: Measure human behavior, emissions, and air quality impacts of selected interventions and develop best practices for community engagement and participatory data collection This research program will combine generalizable long-term modelling with local intervention studies, leveraging participatory data collection methods and community engagement, to obtain place-based perspectives that enable broader learning. This program will advance understanding of transportation challenges and opportunities and promote the development of community-level data, through campus-community-government partnerships.