Green energy and sustainable urban transport transition: A co-benefits assessment for Ahmedabad, India

India is witnessing a rapid surge in urban mobility demand as a result of its increasing population, rapid urbanization, rising income levels and the growth and spread of cities. The growth in urban travel demand is majorly driven by cities as LDV sales continue to increase at 26% and the share of two- and four-wheelers in the vehicle mix is increasing in cities. Such a pattern would have vital implications for local air quality, GHG emissions and energy security in future. It is thus important to move towards a sustainable urban transport pathway, especially in cities, which account for major proportion of the urban transport demand. By implementing various national as well as local GHG mitigation strategies, important co-benefits such as air quality improvement, energy security and GHG mitigation can be gained. City level actions would play a major role and the present study looks at the long term energy and environmental pathways for Ahmedabad city, India. Two scenarios: i) Business-as-usual and ii) a Green Energy and Sustainable Transport, are assessed using the AIM Extended Snapshot for the urban transport sector in Ahmedabad till 2050. The results reveal that there would be important local co-benefits (improvement in air quality) and national level co-benefits (energy security, GHG mitigation) gained if green and sustainable urban transport solutions get implemented across cities.