Clearing the Air: Transportation, Land Use and Carbon Emissions in Metro Vancouver

Published by: David Suzuki Foundation
Authored by: Franziska Förg, Rose Murphy, Mark Jaccard
ISBN: 978-1-988424-70-5

Climate solutions, Cities climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable transportation, land use, British Columbia

Many initiatives that cities and metropolitan areas take to reduce carbon emissions encourage or require changes to the built environment. Together, these changes are often referred to as “smart growth.” This report looks at the potential of this strategy to reduce end-use greenhouse gas emissions from personal transportation in Metro Vancouver. The results highlight the overlap that exists between the smart growth policies that are simulated and existing senior government policies promoting energy efficiency and fuel switching. Ambitious smart growth land-use policies are found to offer fairly small additional GHG reductions from personal transportation in Metro Vancouver when combined with current and announced federal and B.C. policies. Ambitious smart growth policies would be expected to have a larger impact on carbon emissions in a different geographical context with weaker senior government carbon-reduction policies. The report’s literature review suggests that smart growth policies may contribute to increased livability, social equity and affordability.