Worldwide, transportation accounts for about 30% of energy usage (primarily petroleum energy) and is one of the major contributors for Greenhouse Gas emission and air pollution. Continuous urbanization and motorization, particularly in developing economics such as China, makes it urgent to find pathways toward sustainable and low-carbon transportation energy system. With rapid technology development, high consumer expectation, energy independency and environmental concerns, and stringent government regulation, the transportation industry is on the verge of major change. But how do we guide the transportation system toward sustainable and low-carbon? This presentation explores a systematic approach to guide the transition process by considering technology development, market acceptance and government policy. Lessens from developed economics such as United States and European Union will be discussed which can shed lights on the low-carbon transportation transition in China.
Yuche Chen, Ph.D. is a research scientist at United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He received Ph.D. degree in Transportation Engineering, and two M.S. degrees in Statistics and Economics, all from University of California, Davis. He obtained M.S. degree in Management Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University and B.S. degree in Transportation Engineering from Central South University. With over 10 years research experience in transportation energy and environment field, Dr. Chen has built expertise in alternative transportation energy use and modeling, sustainable transportation infrastructure planning, technological change induced by government policy, transportation-air quality-health impact modeling. At NREL, Dr. Chen leads research projects funded by US Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation to advance the understanding of future energy systems and their environmental and social impacts, and seek solutions that improve the process of making decisions toward low-carbon energy system. Before joining NREL, Dr. Chen was a research scientist at Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) where he served as the academic and outreach lead for TTI’s Environmental and Emission Research Facility, and worked as a research associate at National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Chen previously worked in International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), International Institute for Applied System Analysis, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dr. Chen is a member of Transportation Research Board Alternative Fuels and Technologies Committee (ADC80) and also one of the contributors at ICCT to discover the Volkswagen Emission Scandal in 2015.