Compact Cities Electrified: India Roadmap - ITDP

The impacts of climate change are already wreaking havoc on ecosystems and economies. To meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and for a chance of limiting global warming to less than 1.5°C, governments worldwide will need to use every possible policy tool to reduce emissions from urban transport. However, neither vehicle electrification nor mode shift is sufficient alone: the world needs both.

In a recent study, researchers from ITDP and the University of California, Davis have found that the only way to prevent the worst effects of climate change is to engage in a comprehensive strategy of compact, mixed-use cities built around walking, cycling, and public transit, combined with investments in electric vehicles.  

The second roadmap in the series takes a closer look at India to identify four highly ambitious, but feasible, scenarios for the next 30 years of India’s urban transport sector. 

Among the four scenarios — Business-As-Usual, High Electrification, High Shift, and Electrification + Shift — the brief finds that only an Electrification + Shift approach can help India effectively reduce its urban transport emissions and help the country address the effects of the climate crisis.