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Overcoming Jevons Paradox: Improving The Sustainability of Israel's Transportation Policies

Alon Tal

The relative contribution of transportation to the global carbon footprint is expected to increase due to expansion of the world’s automotive fleets, notwithstanding increasing electrification of vehicles and the introduction of cleaner fuels for electricity. Israel is no exception. Despite the global improvement in automotive fuel efficiency, local regulatory interventions and innovative tax incentives that make cars emissions per vehicle-km traveled lower than ever, transportation’s contribution to the country’s greenhouse gas profile is rising. Economists describe such situations as Jevons Paradox, where an increase in efficiency due to a new technology that was assumed to lead to reduced consumption of resource, actually increases it. The article assesses the impact of Israel’s transportation policies and the measures required to improve the transport sector’s environmental performance. Israel’s growing emissions from the transport sector can be linked to a lack of reasonable public transportation alternatives for most commuters; inadequate economic incentives, such as congestion pricing to reduce use of private vehicles; widespread employee compensation for driving private vehicles to work and reliance on company-owned cars; and the growing distance of workers’ homes from urban employment centers. A narrow focus on technologies that control vehicle emissions is not enough to make the required progress in reducing greenhouse gases. A significant commitment to demand management that revolutionizes transportation patterns and the growing dependency on automotive travel is also imperative.