A Life-Cycle Carbon Emissions Model for Urban Public Transportation

The number of vehicles in China will be more than 250 million by 2015, and it is increasing at the rate of 20% per year. A lot of research shows that vehicles emission is one of the causes of the haze weather. Thus, the environmental benefits of low-carbon travel have become a hot topic in the current research. Aiming at urban public transportation system, the paper analyzes carbon emissions in its construction process. It calculates carbon emissions from the human activity, materials production, mechanical fuel consumption, and vehicles production in the construction process, as well as the carbon emissions of the fossil fuel consumption and power production in the vehicles operation. This research can provide the reference for the urban travel structure choice under the background of low carbon to support the sustainable development of urban transportation.