Title

Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Assessment - Applications to the Passenger Transportation Sector

Abstract

Mitigation of climate change emissions in the United States and worldwide requires investment in new technologies and new infrastructure. Popular frameworks for thinking about climate change mitigation, such as a ‘wedge’ analyses, ignore the full life cycle emissions associated with different infrastructure and investment decisions. This talk examines climate change mitigation efforts for the passenger transportation sector from a life cycle perspective. It will focus in particular on two main avenues of inquiry: (i) the synthesis and enhancement of LCAs of transportation infrastructure and technologies including biofuels, advanced technology passenger cars, and high-speed rail; and (ii) new methods for characterizing greenhouse gas emissions that occur over time, which is particularly relevant for long-lived infrastructure and technology.