Internal spillover effect of carbon emission between transportation sectors and electricity generation sectors

The exact carbon reduction potential of transportation electrification has not been answered directly from the coupled view of electric power transmission and transportation. To address this issue, the multi-regional input-output model and quasi-input-output model are used. Through simulation results comparison between the baseline scenario and transportation electrification scenario, we can observe that transportation electrification scenario would finally reduce 403 million tons, while the increase of 302 million tons of CO2 from the electricity generation sector due to the spatial spillover effect offsets the reduced 705 million-tons decarbonization benefits of the traffic transportation sector, as well as the decarbonization benefits of cleaner electricity generation. The total reduced CO2 emissions under the combined scenario are 1997 million tons, which is 94 million tons larger than the overall effect of the separate implementation of transportation electrification scenario and cleaner electricity generation scenario. We conclude that to reduce carbon emission transfer, much greater attention needs to be paid to cleaner generation mix construction.

Automated summary

The carbon reduction potential of transportation electrification has been examined using the multi-regional input-output model and quasi-input-output model. The results show that while transportation electrification scenario would lead to a reduction of 403 million tons of CO2 emissions, the spatial spillover effect in the electricity generation sector offsets this reduction by an increase of 302 million tons. When considering both transportation electrification and cleaner electricity generation scenarios together, the total CO2 emissions reduced amount to 1,997 million tons, which is larger than the combined effect of implementing each scenario separately by 94 million tons. This highlights the importance of focusing on cleaner generation mix construction to mitigate carbon emission transfer.