Midway evaluation in Environment and Natural Resources - Kevin Joseph Dillman

Event on Zoom:https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/69644438964. 

Title: Impact of electrification of the urban mobility sector and its role within Sustainable Urban Mobility

Doctoral candidate: Kevin Joseph Dillman

Doctoral committee:
Dr. Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir, Professor in Environment and Natural Resources, University of Iceland
Dr. Jukka Heinonen, Professor at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland
Dr. Reza Fazeli, Research Fellow, Australian National University

Abstract

The electrification of vehicles can act as a GHG mitigation solution in countries with medium-to-low carbon intensities, though at a city scale the indirect emissions associated with the production of vehicles should be considered when considering decarbonization strategies. The greater introduction of EVs additionally stands to impact the electrical grid and may require greater electrical grid infrastructure expansion in order to incorporate the increased integrations of EVs.

This gives insights into the wider impacts of electrification, and broadening this further, within the greater picture of sustainable urban mobility, while EVs stand to assist in decarbonizing the transport sector, there are additional environmental and social factors connected to the mobility sector. This work thus additionally explores the ‘sustainable consumption corridor’ to understand the social floors and ecological ceilings that are material to the mobility sector to give deeper insights into the role electrification can play in the movement towards a sustainable transport system.

The results thus far have shown that within the Reykjavik case study, EVs stand to make sufficient progress towards decarbonizing the direct emissions from the transport sector, however an integrated approach stands to promote greater sustainability and greater decarbonization potential when considering indirect emissions