An estimation of greenhouse gas emissions due to commuting

Commutes play a key role in mobility. In France, in 2019, they accounted for 26% of the distances traveled by people aged 6 and over, during their daily commute, and even 42% for people in employment. With this in mind, this working paper suggests a method for calculating GHG emissions from commuting trips.

Population census data alone do not allow for direct calculation of GHG emissions associated with commuting. The frequency of trips, the distance traveled and the emissions associated with each mode of transport cannot be determined without external data. It is thus necessary to implement a method for imputing these different variables, based on various data sources such as the Mobility Survey and the Statistical Directory of Road Vehicles.

The work presented here is the result of collaboration between the Pôle de Service de l'Action Régionale (Psar) of the Direction Régionale de l'Insee Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, and the Service des Données et Études Statistiques (Sdes) of the Ministère de la Transition écologique et de la Cohésion des territoires. The anonymized individual data resulting from this collaboration are made available publicly on Ouvrir dans un nouvel ongletdata.gouv.fr, at a fine scale allowing analysis of both the characteristics of individuals and the areas in which they live and work. These data will be updated every year, except in 2020, an exceptional year for personal mobility due to the health crisis.