From:    munekata at iges.or.jp
Subject: IGES Call for Abstracts: Climate-Friendly Transportation Strategies in Asia: Overcoming Obstacles to Co-benefits
Date: August 6, 2008

Call for Abstracts: Climate-Friendly Transportation Strategies in Asia: Overcoming Obstacles to Co-benefits.

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Climate Policy Project invites abstracts (two A4 pages) on co-benefits of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation in Asia’s transportation sector.

Selected authors will be invited to contribute full-length papers for a multi-chapter book project. Selected authors will also be sponsored to attend the Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2008 Workshop in Bangkok, Thailand and present their findings at a pre-event panel scheduled for 11 November 2008.

Due Date: 1 September 2008

Project Rationale:

Rising rates of motorization in developing Asia have become a source of concern outside and inside the region. Outside the region this concern stems from projections that carbon emissions from Asia’s transport sector could triple by 2025. Inside the region it stems from projections that urban air pollution levels, fuel costs, and commuting times could increase just as sharply over the same period. The key to altering these projections may lie in integrated transportation policies. Integrated transportation policies are so named because, rather than focusing on either developmental or climate goals, they pursue both objectives simultaneously. Integrated policies therefore have the potential to be more cost-effective than isolated climate or developmental policies.

A number of studies have demonstrated this potential by estimating the developmental benefits of integrated policies. These benefits are commonly referred to as co-benefits.  The values of co-benefits are often found to be significant in developing Asia, which would presumably draw interest from regional policymakers. But while the influence of this research seems likely to expand, thus far its impacts on policies have been limited. This book project seeks to determine why these potentially sizable impacts have yet to materialize in developing Asia’s transport sector. More concretely, the project’s main goal is to understand the opportunities for and obstacles to maximizing the co-benefits of transportation policies in developing Asia.  A second goal is to propose countermeasures based on that assessment.

Abstracts should focus on one of the following three themes.

Analytical Framework: Papers should identify categories of transportation policies with significant co-benefits and barriers to realizing those benefits. Papers may focus on technical, financial, political, and social barriers. Analytical frameworks offering explanations for why some categories of policies are more likely to succeed than others are encouraged.

Case Studies: Papers should examine specific projects/programmes/ policies where the co-benefits have or have not materialized in developing Asia.  Submissions should highlight the actors, interests and institutions that contributed to the case’s performance. Comparative case studies are encouraged.

Co-benefits in the Post-2012 Climate Regime: Papers should explore opportunities for recognizing and rewarding transportation co-benefits in the post-2012 climate regime. Insights into how the post-2012 climate regime could strengthen the design and implementation of integrated transportation policies are encouraged.
Abstracts should be submitted as a PDF file attachment by email to  cobenefits at iges.or.jp by 1 September 2008. Include “IGES CO-BENEFIT ABSTRACT” on the subject line of the email.  The abstract should include the following: the title of the paper, name and institutional affiliation of author(s) and their disciplines on the title page. Only English-language submissions will be considered.

The IGES Climate Policy Project will acknowledge receipt of all submissions by email. Notification of selected abstracts will be made by 15 September 2008. The authors of selected abstracts will be asked to submit the draft version of full paper by 5 November 2008. This call for abstracts is open to policy practitioners, scholars, and students from both developed and developing countries. The focus of study should be Asia; cases outside the region can be used for comparative purposes.

About the Climate Policy Project at IGES

The mission of the project is to recommend effective climate policies for sustainable development in Asia in this era of evolving global climate regime. In Phase 4 of its research (April 2007-March 2010), the project is conducting research on four sub-themes: market mechanisms, adaptation, climate regime beyond 2012, and co-benefits. This call for papers is specifically designed to assist the work of the sub-themes of climate regime beyond 2012 and co-benefits. For additional details of the project, please refer to http://www.iges.or.jp/en/cp.

For additional details regarding this call for abstracts, please contact:
Dr. Ancha Srinivasan, Principal Researcher and Manager at:        cobenefits at iges.or.jp