MyFairShare- Individual Mobility Budgets as the Foundation for Social and Ethical Carbon Reduction

The decarbonization of the transport sector is crucial for realizing the greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) reduction targets required to keep the 2°C (1.5°C) warming limit put forward by the UNFCCC Paris Agreement To reach this goal a mere focus on strategies that evoke efficiency – brought about by technological innovation – as well as consistency – shifting to new technologies while keeping current behavior – will not suffice. For reducing the environmental (GHGE) footprint of the transport sector – specifically individual mobility – behavioral changes will be required to keep the footprint of society’s cumulative transport demand within the ecological carrying capacity of our planet. MyFairShares investigates and tests personal mobility GHG budgets as a means to align individual mobility behavior at a sufficient “upper limit” of mobility demand that complies with a consecutive GHGE reduction goal. In initial work, basic characteristics and requirements for introducing personal mobility budgets have been defined involving a broad range of stakeholders. MyFairShare will prepare the implementation of personal mobility budgets on an international level. Results of MyFairShare will be: • Reliable Models that calculate the personal GHG-Emissions from different data inputs (provided in the participating countries), taking into account technical and legal restrictions and well as models for a “fair” initial distribution of GHGE-permits. • A tested model of a socially acceptable trading mechanism. • Tested communication strategies for different decision makers to convince different groups of people about the necessity of introducing mobility budgets and motivate them to participate. • Concepts and requirements for implementation tools and campaigns (tender part) • Guidelines for the workflow to include other areas (e.g. nutrition, consumption, overall household emissions) into a comprehensive personal GHGE-Budget. Steps within MyFairShare to reach the above results: • Collection of mobility data as well as restrictions for the development of models and strategies • Qualitative research to develop messages for different target audiences in different countries • Large scale surveys to test the messages and communication strategies • Field tests of both the messages and the concept for a personal mobility budget in selected, varied environments (e.g. within well-connected urban districts, peripheral urban districts with poor connectivity, or, amongst commuters into urban areas) • Development of guidelines for implementing a mobility budget tool and an accompanying campaign and a workflow for the inclusion of other areas into the GHGE budget