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Policy Scope Does IMPACT include policies, programmes or measures?
Setting out to review 'policies' begs the question of what we mean by a 'policy' as opposed to a programme or a specific behavioural or technical measure designed to influence energy use from transport. In its broadest sense, a policy can be defined as a course of action taken by government or other institutions to achieve a predetermined objective. A policy measure or policy instrument is used interchangeably to capture the core means by which the policy objective is delivered. These can include a whole range of approaches including taxation, regulation or other legal requirements and prohibitions, and others which are not necessarily legally binding such as voluntary instruments or information campaigns. A programme is a collective of policy measures designed to achieve an agreed set of objectives.
These policy programmes, measures or instruments need to be distinguished from the technical or behavioural measures or instruments which will assist in the achievement of the policy objectives. For example, a regulatory policy to set speed limits on roads to meet safety, traffic management and carbon objectives will be delivered using specific policy measures such as speed cameras, penalty fines, police enforcement, signage, awareness campaigns and speed limiters on vehicles. These are all aimed at ensuring drivers implement a behavioral measure to stick within the preferred speed. IMPACT includes both policy programmes and measures which can be implemented by government or other institutions (in some cases including the private sector (e.g. workplace travel plans) to the lowest level of implementation deemed useful for analysis. For example, in the case of speed limits, IMPACT includes one policy entry assessing the potential impacts on carbon emissions of achieving speed compliance through a range of associated policy and technical and behavioural measures. On the other hand, instead of one policy entry entitled 'vehicle taxation', this is split into component tax instruments such a Vehicle Excise Duty and purchase taxes, even though there are overlapping impacts from each. The former (speed) is a policy programme and the latter (vehicle excise duty) is a policy measure. Supporting behavioural or technical instruments are discussed where appropriate under each policy.
There are, however, a couple of largely evolving transport policy areas where the definition is not entirely clear cut. These include ecodriving, teleworking, teleconferencing and videoconferencing. Under all of these, the evidence base largely concentrates on the 'technical potential' of these behavioural shifts, whereby the policies and technical or behavioural instruments used to secure this potential remains largely unassessed or even elusive. Where this is the case, we have discussed exactly what we think the supporting policy measures are comprised of and likely to achieve. Do we set out to examine the cost-effectiveness of policies, programmes or measures? The discussion above about policies versus technical or behavioural measures has direct implications for how to assess costs and benefits of policy. Programmes and policy measures take a variety of different forms and can have a variety of different scales of costs and impacts. These costs and impacts can also be variously distributed - i.e. among transport operators, car manufacturers, end users, government etc. Consequently, it is necessary to distinguish between (i) the programme costs of a policy (e.g. the costs of drafting a bill, providing subsidies, enforcement) (ii) the costs to end-users and suppliers / operators (e.g. of purchasing or manufacturing cars) and (iii) costs to society as a whole (taking into account different discount rates for different actors as well as costs for carbon abated). The evidence base varies immensely in terms of whether policy cost assessments are provided, and if they are, what has been included under this assessment. For instance, some studies may include the costs of programme administration, whereas others may include the costs to travellers of purchasing public transport tickets and some may include the social cost of carbon abated. The former is a programme cost, the second a cost to the end user and the latter and societal cost. In addition, there are a multitude of problems comparing this evidence due to differences in start dates, timescales, geographical scales, currencies, etc which mean that it is almost impossible to use comparative studies to arrive at a robust assessment of the cost, and particularly the cost-effectiveness, of a policy measure. Policy Focus The policy database currently focuses on passenger surface transport options at the moment (i.e. cars, trains, buses, walking and cycling). However, the goal is to extend coverage to encompass aviation and freight policies. Currently, it is possible to subdivide passenger and freight transport into four principal areas of focus for policy to mitigate transport’s contribution to energy demand reduction:
Mitigating transport’s contribution to climate change will require a combination of measures from each of these three routes to energy reduction. Various policy options simultaneously target more than one of these three routes to demand reduction, as many measures have different impacts according to policy emphasis. Furthermore, some policies will have an effect on travel and energy demand across the passenger and freight sectors, others will be mode and journey specific.
Although the policy database draws heavily upon UK and EU experience it also seeks to build the evidence base from best case examples from around the world. The policies are grouped under the following broad categories: We have not yet completed briefs on every one of these policies, but will be adding more each month. Summary text will be contained on the web pages (which you are free to edit) and a more detailed policy brief is available in pdf format, which we will update as more content is brought to our attention. Policy Structure Each policy is structured as follows:
Key Parameters Definition and Typology
Objectives & Rationale
Mode Target
Behaviour Target
Implementation Cost & Time
Carbon Abatement
Time of Carbon Savings
Ancillary Impacts
Provides a broad overview of where the policy has been implemented. This is not an exhaustive list. Also provides more in-depth coverage of a specific case study in some instances or compares various case-studies if adequate information is available. The case-studies discuss what the policy objectives are, how the policy is structured, implemented and operated, what some of the key impacts are, and if there are any new reforms. Policy Synergies Provides both modelled and empirical evidence of highlighted policies that may act synergistically to achieve their intended effects. This is not an exhaustive list of synergies but reflects some of the more important combinations of policies that could be implemented in coordination with one another. Factors for Success Highlights important barriers and opportunities that could be considered to achieve the full potential of the policy. Also draws from case-evidence to delineate specific strategies that have been used previously that are widely viewed as contributing to a successful outcome.
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