Chapter 2: Environmental Concepts – Physical and Economic

The quality of the environment is influenced by the economic activities of production, energy use, consumption, and transport. During the early stages of industrial development, industrial activity was the main cause of environmental damage; now, in most developed countries the transport sector is the predominant source of environmental harm (Figure 1) and the transport sector is still very dynamic. Passenger transport in most countries is growing at rates equal to GDP. Air traffic is growing much faster, at rates often double or triple of the GDP growth rate. Freight transport has de-coupled from GDP in some countries in an environmentally undesired direction. In particular the tonne and vehicle kilometers of road transport are growing much faster than GDP. The development of logistics is supporting this trend. As shippers prefer high flexibility and perfect control of transport to integrate freight movements into the supply chains the freight modal split in many countries is changing in favor of the road.