Life Cycle Carbon Footprint of the North-South Corridor Road Network Philippa Notten and Ilhaam Patel December 2013
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Life Cycle Carbon Footprint of the North-South Corridor Road Network Philippa Notten and Ilhaam Patel December 2013 Revamping the Regional Railway Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa Mark Pearson and Bo Giersing Regional Integration Research Network Discussion Paper (RIRN/DP/12/01) Regional Integration Research Network www. Open Dialogues for Regional Innovation trademarksa.org/rirn Preface Since its establishment in 2009, TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA) has supported the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite in developing and implementing its regional integration agenda. TMSA has provided this support by focusing on regional market integration to establish a free trade area in the Tripartite region, trade facilitation, infrastructure development and industrial development. One of the work areas under the infrastructure development pillar is TMSA’s support for the design, upgrade and construction of regional transport corridors. TMSA commissioned Camco Clean Energy and The Green House to undertake a study for estimating the carbon footprint of the North-South Corridor road network (NSC) according to international best-practice standards. This was done through a life-cycle analysis approach by determining the carbon footprint of individual road links forming part of the NSC in their respective construction, maintenance, rehabilitation and operational phases. Thereafter, the individual carbon footprints of NSC roads in different phases were added to determine and analyse the overall carbon footprint of the NSC. The study is innovative by being the first of its kind to consider and determine the contribution of a wide variety of greenhouse gasses arising from road construction activities, equipment and materials over the entire life-cycle of roads. It is also innovative by determining the carbon footprint of a road corridor that spans across a number of countries. This innovative approach has been applied to the NSC as a pilot study. The study is accompanied by the original data files for transparency and to enable other parties to replicate the calculations in similar activities. The study is also complemented by a related study which TMSA commissioned to consider climate change challenges in sub-Sahara Africa, the policy environment conducive to climate change and transport in the Tripartite region, mitigation and adaptation frameworks that can be used for the development of the regional transport/roads sector, available financing channels that could be used for the development of the regional transport/roads sector and how the carbon footprint of regional roads can be utilised to access finance or form part of climate mitigation/adaptation actions. TMSA began to analyse literature related to estimating the carbon footprint of road projects in late 2012. It developed a concept note for internal dissemination and presented the findings to development practitioners and public and private sector participants as part of TMSA’s regional integration research network. The response to the proposition for estimating the carbon footprint of roads was overwhelming and resulted in TMSA’s appointment of Camco Clean Energy and The Green House in May 2013 to deliver the study. The TMSA lead for this study was Deon Fourie, economist/economic research analyst, knowledge management and monitoring and evaluation. The study also benefitted from reviews and comments by the UK Department for International Development. TMSA would like to thank Deon Fourie, Lolette Kritzinger-van Niekerk, Alec Joubert, Camco Clean Energy and The Green House for their valuable contribution and hard work associated with this study. Life cycle carbon footprint of the North-South corridor road network TradeMark Southern Africa | www.trademarksa.org i Table of Contents Preface .................................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. ii List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... v List of Acronyms .................................................................................................................. vii Executive Summary ............................................................................................................. ix 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 2 Scope of the study ........................................................................................................... 1 2.1 Overview of methodological approach ........................................................................ 1 2.2 Road studies in the literature ...................................................................................... 2 2.2.1 Road LCA studies .................................................................................................... 2 2.2.2 GHG emissions of roads .......................................................................................... 3 2.3 Scope of the study ...................................................................................................... 4 2.3.1 The functional unit ................................................................................................... 4 2.3.2 The system boundary .............................................................................................. 7 2.3.3 Allocation procedures .............................................................................................. 8 2.3.4 Methodology of inventory analysis and calculation procedure to be used .............. 8 2.3.5 Methodology of impact assessment and subsequent interpretation to be used ...... 9 2.3.6 Data requirements and data collection strategy ...................................................... 9 2.3.7 Limitations of the study .......................................................................................... 10 3 Description of life cycle models ................................................................................... 12 3.1 Overview of the life cycle model ............................................................................... 12 3.2 Construction .............................................................................................................. 13 3.2.1 Site preparation ..................................................................................................... 16 3.2.2 Sub-base pavement layer ...................................................................................... 17 3.2.3 Base pavement layer ............................................................................................. 18 3.2.4 Surface pavement layer ......................................................................................... 18 3.2.5 Production of fuels and materials .......................................................................... 19 3.2.6 Transport of materials ............................................................................................ 19 3.3 Maintenance ............................................................................................................. 20 3.4 Rehabilitation ............................................................................................................ 21 3.4.1 Preventative treatment ........................................................................................... 21 3.4.2 Resurfacing (or restoration) ................................................................................... 22 3.4.3 Rehabilitation ......................................................................................................... 23 3.4.4 Frequency of rehabilitation works .......................................................................... 23 3.5 Operation .................................................................................................................. 25 3.5.1 Vehicle Emissions .................................................................................................. 26 3.5.2 Growth in road traffic ............................................................................................. 26 3.6 Diesel and electricity data ......................................................................................... 28 3.7 Land use change ...................................................................................................... 29 Life cycle carbon footprint of the North-South corridor road network TradeMark Southern Africa | www.trademarksa.org ii 4 Results and discussion ................................................................................................. 31 4.1 Carbon footprint of road infrastructure ...................................................................... 33 4.1.1 Construction ........................................................................................................... 36 4.1.2 Maintenance .......................................................................................................... 37 4.1.3 Rehabilitation ......................................................................................................... 38 4.2 Carbon footprint of road operation ...........................................................................