Addressing unsustainability of road-centered freight transport in ROK : trans-Korean railway as a catalyst for low carbon transition

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Low carbon sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” In this light, its nexus with sustainable transport has gained global recognition as science advanced to identify hazardous externalities of carbon-intensive transport. The High-Level Advisory Group of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has explicitly indicated that sustainable transport with railway at the heart is an enabler for all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The world, however, has also realized cutting carbon emission in the transport sector is more complicated than other sectors for its deep coupling with economic activities and overall city planning. The intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in response, introduced the co-benefits of climate change mitigation to encourage policy shift towards sustainable transport for other important benefits like air quality management, public health and economic development in addition to the aimed carbon reduction. Frankly, the past successive transport emission regulations, both hard and soft, were aimed for the air quality improvement such as smog. South Korea joined the rally to address the exacerbating urban air quality and effectuated various policies to improve low carbon transport mode shares. Yet, the road-centered response involving only the incremental policy changes was insufficient that the rail freight share in South Korea dropped to 1.6% in 2016 from 8.1% in 2008 instead of an increase to targeted 18.5% by 2020. Accounting these circumstances, the study elaborated on the critical needs to establish sustainable freight transport system with a balanced mode share between road and rail for low carbon development of South Korea. As a solution to address various urgent issues on the Triple Bottom Line (environmental, social, and economic) of the freight transport system in South Korea, the study presents trans-Korean railway connection to trans-continental railways. The study adopted the Sustainable Project Management maturity model analysis for Triple Bottom Line based Sustainability Assessment on trans-Korean railway. The analysis revealed that gap between actual and desirable sustainability incorporated level in Donghae Line Reconstruction Project, the ongoing project as a part of trans-Korean railway, is three: Proactive. It indicates that there is room to improve the level of sustainability consideration in managing and implementing the Project to materialize the full sustainability potential of the project product. Through comparison with the announced overview on Donghae Reconstruction Line Project and the desired sustainable transport, the study argues that the primary perspectives on TKR connection should be climate-and-pollution co-benefits, not the development-first climate co-benefits. The study, adopting the concept of intermodal integrating hubs from World Bank for operational efficiency, closes by mapping possible contribution of Trans-Korean Railway to Sustainable Development Goals accomplishments in South Korea for low carbon transition.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract 1
• Chapter 1. Introduction 3
• 1-1. Research background and aim 3
• 1-2. Research scope and methodology 19
• Chapter 2. Global transition to sustainable transport for low
• carbon development 29
• 2-1. Global trend towards low carbon development 29
• 1) Paris Agreement and transport 29
• 2) Sustainable transport for low carbon development 39
• 2-2. Literature review on sustainable transport policy 48
• 1) Beyond sectoral policy to climate co-benefits policy 48
• 2) Triple Bottom Line based Sustainability Assessment
• Framework on sustainable transport policy 57
• Chapter 3. Lessons from the first co-benefits approach: Air quality management 67
• 3-1. Low carbon mode shift for traffic demand management …67
• 1) EU experience 67
• 2) Japanese experience 77
• 3-2. Road regulations for emission control 83
• 1) US experience 83
• 2) Indian experience 88
• 3-3. Implications on sustainable co-benefits transport planning
• and TKR connection 93
• 1) Long-term incompetency of road regulation for sustainable
• development: Balloon effects and rebound effects 93
• 2) Concept of TKR and inter-Korean cooperation history….118
• Chapter 4. Unsustainable road-centered freight transport system
• in today’s ROK 140
• 4-1. Current carbon-intensive freight movement 140
• 1) Traditional road-first transport policy under islandic
• geopolitical situation 140
• 2) 200-mile threshold and railway incompetency 145
• 3) Consequent road-centered freight transport system 151
• 4-2. Road-centered response to global pressure to act on climate
• change 177
• 1) Incremental policy changes on road system 177
• 2) Failure of the Fourth Modification on the Comprehensive
• National Plan 188
• 3) Governmental study on Transport Energy Re-pricing 196
• Chapter 5. TKR connection for low carbon development of
• ROK 207
• 5-1. TKR to facilitate low carbon mode for traffic demand
• management 207
• 1) Regional logistics trends and growth of trans-continental
• railways 207
• 2) TKR connection to trans-continental railways for rail
• facilitation 215
• 5-2. Triple Bottom Line based Sustainability Assessment 223
• 1) Triple Bottom Line analysis on TKR 223
• 2) Sustainability Assessment on TKR 242
• 5-3. TKR connection as low carbon sustainability policy 263
• 1) Climate-and-pollution co-benefits policy 263
• 2) Contribution to SDGs accomplishment 269
• Chapter 6. Conclusion 282
• Reference 289
• Appendix 1 309
• Appendix 2 312
• 국문요약 315