Publication
Environmental performance assessment of the transport sector in the European Union
| Summary: | The transport sector plays a fundamental role in the European economy. Efficient transport services and infrastructure are fundamental for making the most of the region’s economic strengths. Unfortunately, the European Union transport sector still remains heavily dependent on oil resources and, therefore, it is responsible for a large part of the air pollution. The emissions from the sector have reduced in the last decade, but not enough to limit its impact on the environment and climate. Reducing its pressure on the environment is critical to achieve long-term sustainability. The European Union has been promoting diverse initiatives towards sustainable transport development and environment protection by setting targets for changes in the sector as the ones proposed in 2011 White Paper on transport. Under this context, this study aims at evaluating the environmental performance of the transport sector in 28 European Union countries, from 2015 to 2018, towards the policy agenda established in the strategic documents. The assessment of the transport environmental performance was made through the aggregation of seven sub-indicators into a composite indicator using a Data Envelopment Analysis approach. Two models were first used to determine the weights to aggregate the subindicators: the conventional Benefit of the Doubt model and a variant of the model, both with virtual proportional weights restrictions. The results indicate that the European Union countries have been improving their transport environmental performance in the last two years analysed, 2017 and 2018. The inefficient countries should improve the transport sustainability mainly by drastically reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel, increasing the share of freight transport that uses rail and inland waterways and also the share of transport energy from renewable sources. |
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| Main Authors: | Gruetzmacher, Sarah |
| Subject: | Composite indicator Sustainable development Data envelopment analysis Benefit of the doubt |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Document type: | master thesis |
| Access type: | open access |
| Associated institution: | Instituto Politécnico de Bragança |
| Language: | English |
| Origin: | Biblioteca Digital do IPB |
| Summary: | The transport sector plays a fundamental role in the European economy. Efficient transport services and infrastructure are fundamental for making the most of the region’s economic strengths. Unfortunately, the European Union transport sector still remains heavily dependent on oil resources and, therefore, it is responsible for a large part of the air pollution. The emissions from the sector have reduced in the last decade, but not enough to limit its impact on the environment and climate. Reducing its pressure on the environment is critical to achieve long-term sustainability. The European Union has been promoting diverse initiatives towards sustainable transport development and environment protection by setting targets for changes in the sector as the ones proposed in 2011 White Paper on transport. Under this context, this study aims at evaluating the environmental performance of the transport sector in 28 European Union countries, from 2015 to 2018, towards the policy agenda established in the strategic documents. The assessment of the transport environmental performance was made through the aggregation of seven sub-indicators into a composite indicator using a Data Envelopment Analysis approach. Two models were first used to determine the weights to aggregate the subindicators: the conventional Benefit of the Doubt model and a variant of the model, both with virtual proportional weights restrictions. The results indicate that the European Union countries have been improving their transport environmental performance in the last two years analysed, 2017 and 2018. The inefficient countries should improve the transport sustainability mainly by drastically reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel, increasing the share of freight transport that uses rail and inland waterways and also the share of transport energy from renewable sources. |
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