Transport Emissions & Social Cost Assessment: Methodology Guide

The Transport Emissions & Social Cost Assessment (TESCA) guide establishes a macro-level framework to quantify emissions and monetize social costs for 18 transport modes. It targets developing regions where statistical systems are weak, providing a process that includes data quality analysis, emissions inventory estimation, and the calculation of eco-efficiency indicators. The methodology was tested in Chengdu, China, and aims to support more cost-efficient policy-making by highlighting the uncertainties inherent in social cost and health cost data.

• The methodology and its accompanying tool are designed to estimate inventories for three greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, and N2O) and six air pollutants (NOX, SOX, PM2.5, PM10, CO, and HC) across 18 different transport modes at city or national levels.
• The transport emissions impact evaluation process consists of six main components: defining the study scope, performing data quality analysis, estimating emissions inventories, evaluating social costs, calculating indicative results (such as eco-efficiency indicators), and conducting a results review with local justification.
• The assessment tool (version 1.0), first designed in 2014, was successfully tested in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwest China.
• Evaluations of social costs, particularly health costs, are subject to higher levels of uncertainty than emissions inventory estimates due to the uneven availability and reliability of data.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Transport Emissions & Social Cost Assessment: Methodology Guide. https://www.wri.org/research/transport-emissions-social-cost-assessment-methodology-guide

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Transport Emissions & Social Cost Assessment: Methodology Guide. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/transport-emissions-social-cost-assessment-methodology-guide.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Transport Emissions & Social Cost Assessment: Methodology Guide |url=https://www.wri.org/research/transport-emissions-social-cost-assessment-methodology-guide |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendtransport, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Transport Emissions \& Social Cost Assessment: Methodology Guide}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/transport-emissions-social-cost-assessment-methodology-guide}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }