Chapter 16: Gender and the Transition to Net Zero Transport

Climate change and inequality, including gender inequality, have been identified by the United Nations as two of the biggest challenges of the contemporary global era. Although much has been made both of the need to achieve net zero carbon emissions to mitigate the worst extremes of climate chaos and the policies and technologies which may or may not facilitate a transition to a dramatically carbon-curtailed (if not wholly carbon emission-free) future, it is only relatively recently that concerns about the gender and gendered implications of the move towards net zero transport have begun to be articulated. This is an important development. The global transport sector, which currently accounts for around a quarter of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, remains a long way from reaching its net zero target (International Transport Forum (ITF), 2021). In addition, transport has historically failed to deliver adequate gender inclusive services which recognise and meet the different mobility needs, priorities, and services both between and within genders and which also take account of changes in mobility patterns over the life course. Given that women’s mobility, on average, has a lower carbon intensity than that of men (Polk, 2003) and women generally exhibit more environmentally aware behaviours and attitudes (Desrochers et al., 2019; Rosqvist, 2019), women can be powerful agents for accelerating transport decarbonisation (Kronsell et al., 2016). However, a gender-just change to decarbonise transport, which recognises and considers the implications of any intervention, can only occur if women are in positions to inform and influence investment and decision-making processes pertaining to the provision of future mobility-related issues, including the design and delivery of future infrastructure, vehicles, and services. As Lyons (2004, p. 494) noted ‘The majority of the population is female and yet … the transport systems have been shaped around male, middle-class, middle-aged professionals …’. Over 20 years later, it could be argued that little has changed.