Climate Implications of a Collaborative Economy Scenario for Transportation and the Built Environment

In a context of increasingly ambitious climate objectives after the Paris Agreement in 2015, this thesis investigates a scenario for sustainable development in Sweden in 2050 in terms of greenhouse gases emissions. The scenario is built around the idea of a development of collaborative economy in a context of low growth or degrowth. The concept of “collaborative economy” encompasses the sharing of services and underused and unwanted goods between individuals, a focus on the access to services rather than the ownership of products, and new ways of sharing space and time (cohousing, time banks, etc). The present study focuses on the implications of the Collaborative Economy scenario for transports and the built environment at a municipal scale, and aims at modeling the corresponding greenhouse gases emissions. A literature review was carried out to identify the main aspects of the scenario and exemplify the changes it entails. Two spreadsheet models were then developed for transports and the built environment, estimating greenhouse gases emission levels based on a range of assumptions elaborated from the literature review. The municipality of Malmö was used as a case study. Overall, the results of the models and the sensitivity analysis indicate a rather weak influence of collaborative economy strategies on greenhouse gases emissions. Strategies related to changes in the energy mix for heating, materials used in construction, fuels, etc seem to be much more impactful. However, such strategies only impact greenhouse gases emissions, whereas collaborative economy strategies can have other benefits. In particular, cohousing can increase social capital and foster sharing, which in turn could decrease energy and material use for the production of goods. Ridesharing, remote working among others, can decrease congestion and the daily distance traveled. Most of these strategies also provide energy savings, improving the resilience of the system and freeing the energy supply for other purposes.Bortom BNP-tillväx