GHG EMISSIONS, URBAN MOBILITY, AND MORPHOLOGY ■ 89ances, individual buildings—as opposed to concentrated sources such as power
plants or factories, it is diffi cult to develop an emission reduction strategy that
would work for all emitters.
Reliable data on emissions in cities are diffi cult to collect because of ambi-
guity in determining which sources to include as urban. Should urban GHG
emissions be limited to sources located within metropolitan boundaries? Or
should emissions be counted on the basis of urban residents’ consumption in
urban areas? Th e data for cities shown in fi gure 4.1 correspond to the fi rst defi -
nition, although emissions from electricity are accounted for on the basis of
consumption and not on emissions at the location of the power plant.
Some analyses solve the problem posed by emission location versus location
of consumption by including life-cycle emissions (Button 1993; McKinsey and
Co. 2007; Schipper, Unander, and Marie-Lilliu 1999). For instance, the emissions
of a car are not limited to the fuel consumed but include also the energy used to
manufacture it, to maintain it, and to scrap it aft er its useful life. Although this
type of defi nition is reasonable, the resulting numbers are diffi cult to calculate,
and the method implies a number of assumptions, in particular, concerning the
number of years and the number of kilometers traveled during the useful life
of a vehicle. It is important to be aware of the limitations of the data set avail-
able when comparing cities’ performance in GHG emissions. Some apparent
inconsistencies in the data presented below can be attributed to slightly diff erent
assumptions in the data collected about emissions attributions.
Th e sample of fi ve large cities^1 in high-income countries shown in fi gure 4.1
gives a range of emissions from 4 to 7 tons per person per year in 2005 (EIU
2008). It is likely that GHG emissions in cities in low- and middle- income
countries, for which no reliable data are available, are even higher than the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) cities
shown in fi gure 4.1. Th e use of older cars and buses, and the prevalence of two-
stroke engines for motorcycles and three-wheelers, might contribute to higher
GHG emissions per capita. Th e three main sources of GHG emissions in cities
are buildings, transport, and industries. In the sample of fi ve high-income cities
included in fi gure 4.1, the proportion of GHG emissions due to transport var-
ies from 25 percent of total emissions in New York City to 38 percent in Rome
(fi gure 4.2).
Th is chapter will be limited to identifying the best strategies to reduce GHG
emissions due to transport in a context of increasing urban productivity. Th e con-
clusions of this study would be particularly relevant to cities that have more than
1 million inhabitants. According to United Nations data and projections, cities
with populations above 1 million accounted for about 1.2 billion, or 18 percent
of the world population, in 2005. By 2025, it is expected that this will increase
to 1.85 billion and will then represent 23 percent of the world population.