1.
The importance of a strategic framework
Professor Becky P.Y. Loo
Director of Institute of Transport Studies
Founding Co-Director, Joint Laboratory on Future Cities
Professor, Department of Geography
The University of Hong Kong
Honorary Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental &
Geomatic Engineering
UCL
Smart and Sustainable Mobility: Delivering Low Carbon Places
April 21, 2021
11:30 – 13:00 GMT
London, UK

2.
Source: "Archery Target" by NJ Tech Teacher is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Ultimate primary goal: "low carbon" or "low mobility"?
Empirically, transport carbon emissions are growing in both absolute and relative
terms. It reached around 8 Gt CO2 in 2016 (71 percent higher compared to 1990) and it
has become the second largest source of CO2 emissions by sector (around 24 percent)
(IEA, 2018).

3.
Reducing
Mobility
Maintaining
Mobility
Increasing
Mobility
Coupling
Transport
activities
Negative
externalities
Economic
Growth
+
+
+
Decoupling
Transport
activities
Negative
externalities
Economic
Growth
+ -
-
How can we achieve transport decarbonisation?

4.
• Transport decoupling/transport decarbonisation is a multi-dimensional and
multi-scale challenge!

5.
• A strategic framework, encompassing different policy components from planning to
implementation, is VERY important
• Mind the policy-implementation gap

6.
• A recent study on 16 nations across the six major continents.
• This study divides the 29 years into six time periods (with five equal time periods and
the last period consisting of three years) with overlapping years to better capture
continuous change (i.e. 1990–1995, 1995–2000, 2000–2005, 2005–2010, 2010–2015
and 2015–2018). In other words, there are 96 time periods to be investigated in total
(i.e. six time periods for 16 countries).
75% of the
global GDP
60% of the
total
carbon
emissions
1990-
2018
What
policies?

7.
References
Loo, Becky P.Y., W.T. Hung, Hong K. Lo and S.C. Wong (2005) “Road safety strategies: A comparative framework
and case studies.” Transport Reviews 25(5): 613-639.
Loo, Becky P. Y. and Ka Ho Tsoi (2018) “The sustainable transport pathway: A holistic strategy of five
transformations.” Journal of Transport and Land Use 11(1): 961-980.
Tsoi, Ka Ho, Becky P.Y. Loo and David Banister (2021) ““Mind the (Policy-Implementation) gap”: Transport
decarbonisation policies and performances of leading global economies (1990-2018)” Global
Environmental Change 68: 102250.
Contact me at bpyloo@hku.hk
Know more: www.hku.hk/bpyloo
Dr Tsoi Ka Ho (email: jasonf1d@connect.hku.hk)