Planning the low-carbon city. Thoughts about abatement costs of mobility policies

This publication proposes a summary of a research thesis which studied how to address urban climate policies from an economic point of view. This thesis shows that it is possible to develop tools for an economic analysis of local climate policies which would take urban peculiarities into account, notably the systemic aspect, and the importance of positive and negative externalities. The author puts forward the abatement cost which relies on a set of conventions, and is studied through a given analysis table. The application of a urban planning-transport model to the Grenoble area with different scenarios of urban development confirms that abatement costs of measures of reduction of greenhouse gases in the field of mobility are high in comparison with other values (building sector, Quinet value). However, taking co-benefits (or positive externalities) into account allows these costs to be reduced, that which makes investments in the transport sector more attractive. The author shows that reaching the factor 4 in urban transports seems difficult