About Moving Cooler
The national debate on climate change is moving toward ambitious goals. Greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions are imperative. Current proposals favor reducing GHG emissions in all sectors of the economy to as little as 83 percent of 2005 levels by 2050. That’s more than 5,900 million metric tons (MMT) of GHGs for this time period. Roughly 28 percent of the United States’ total GHG emissions come from transportation. Emissions have been the fastest growing in transportation. From 1996 to 2006, growth in U.S. transportation GHG emissions represented almost one-half (47 percent) of the increase in total U.S. GHGs. We cannot meet our national goals without successful strategies to reduce GHGs from transportation.




The starting point for the Moving Cooler report is the critical need for a sustainable transportation system that is managed and used more effectively and more efficiently without generating excessive greenhouse gas emissions. Two recent studies have taken a look a transportation and climate change issues: the 2007 McKinsey & Company and Conference Board report, Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost? and the 2008 Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, published by the Urban Land Institute. Respectively, these studies offer insight into the potential impact that strategies related to advances in technology and fuels have on emissions and how land-use strategies affect emissions through changes in travel behavior. However, to date, little research has taken a critical and comprehensive look at the full range of transportation measures that influence greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the amount of driving, reducing fuel consumption and improving the performance of the transportation system. Moving Cooler is an effort to fill this knowledge gap. 


about the study panel

Moving Cooler is a study commissioned by various agencies and interest groups who want to know the facts about different strategies to reduce GHGs from transportation and how much they can help us meet our GHG reduction goals. Motorized transportation causes GHG emissions whenever the fuel used contains carbon. We call these emissions the “carbon footprint” of the activity that causes them. Research has taught us a lot about how advances in vehicle and fuel technologies can reduce the carbon footprint of transportation. However, we know about the strategies affecting transportation would reduce the overall amount of vehicle travel or improve fuel efficiency.

Moving Cooler provides needed information looking at the effectiveness and costs of almost 50 transportation strategies, individually and in various combinations. The findings of this study can help us coordinate shape effective approaches to reducing GHG emissions at all levels (nationally, regionally, and locally), while meeting broader transportation objectives as well.