TY  - JOUR
AU  - SONG, Yuanyuan
AU  - YAO, Enjian
AU  - XU, Honglei
AU  - HUANG, Quansheng
AU  - WU, Rui
AU  - WANG, Renjie
PY  - 2023
TI  - Strategies and pathways of the transport sector for addressing climate change
JO  - Journal of Tsinghua University (Science and Technology)
SN  - 1000-0054
SP  - 1707
EP  - 1718
VL  - 63
IS  - 11
AB  - [Significance] Climate change is the primary challenge that intensely affects sustainable human development. The transport sector has been one of the major sources of carbon emissions and is considerably affected by climate change. Because of the growth of China's economy and total transport demand, transport-related carbon emissions are also gradually increasing. Moreover, frequent complex and extreme climate events with clear regional differences have negatively affected the construction, maintenance, and operation of the transport infrastructure. Therefore, China's transport sector needs to reduce carbon emissions for green and low-carbon developments and improve its adaptability and resistance to various adverse climatic conditions. However, China's transport sector still faces many challenges in mitigating and adapting to climate change, and its policy tools, measures, and basic capacity to cope with climate change need to be enhanced. Therefore, transport sector-related strategies and routes to adapt to climate change need to be explored. [Progress] First, the policies and measures implemented in different countries to address climate change were introduced from the perspectives of mitigation and adaptation. Second, the advancements made by China's transport sector in mitigating climate change were summarized from the perspectives of the construction of green and low-carbon transport infrastructure, optimization of the transport structures, and promotions and applications of new and clean energy. The measures implemented to adapt to climate change in China's transport sector were summarized from the perspectives of improving the adaptability of the transport infrastructure, strengthening the monitoring and warning systems of climate change, and managing risk. Third, the interactions between each subfield and sublink of the transport system and climate change, as well as the main measures implemented to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the transport sector, were analyzed. Finally, key areas, strategies, and methods to mitigate and adapt to climate change were proposed. [Conclusions and Prospects] Analysis results are provided and discussed. First, the current plan for China's transport response to climate change needs improvement. The capacity to respond to climate change has not been planned at the subfield and sublink level of the transport system. For mitigating climate change, carbon emissions reduction measures, such as the promotion of new energy vehicles and ships, as well as the optimization of the transport structure, are inadequate. Furthermore, the assessment of the effects of the transport infrastructure on climate change is still in its infancy. Second, the direction of the transport system's development should be combined with the strategic requirements of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Third, in the transport field, the infrastructure, equipment, and transport structure should be improved; moreover, the infrastructure should be adapted to climate change, and emergency support of transport equipment and transportation organization in extreme weather should be optimized to enhance the capability to adapt to climate change. Finally, the following measures are proposed: Mitigation and adaptation to climate change should be jointly and appropriately implemented to comprehensively address climate change in the transport sector. Greenhouse gases and air pollutants should be jointly controlled to realize the goal of "double carbon". Adaptation to climate change should be applied in conjunction with ecological protection and restoration to strengthen the capacity of the transport sector to adapt to climate change.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2023.26.021
DO  - 10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2023.26.021