Germany’s Climate Protection Plan 2050 aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector by 40–42% relative to 1990 by 2030. However, only the rough outline of a strategy for achieving this goal is visible at present. One thing is clear: transport sector emissions have not fallen over the last twenty years. A new direction in transport policy is urgently needed if carbon reduction targets are to be achieved.
Transportation is a highly complex domain of activity. Accordingly, adjusting the economic and regulatory conditions in the transport sector to ensure falling greenhouse gas emissions in the future is no easy task. A number of different strategies can be pursued; some of them are complementary, while others are mutually exclusive. To take targeted action, policymakers require rigorous, empirical forecasts of the effects that will be triggered by potential policies and instruments. Indeed, a sound empirical basis is essential for forecasting the impacts that will result from strategies being considered to usher in the transformation of the transport sector.
Agora Verkehrswende is developing a range of climate protection scenarios in order to enhance evidence-based policy debate.
