The economic impact of greenhouse gas abatement through a meta-analysis: Valuation, consequences and implications in terms of transport policy

•The valuation of GHG emissions ranges up to 6 orders of magnitude.•We have created a database of 700 GHG unitary values derived from several IAMs.•We have highlighted the most significant parameters that affect the final value.•Through a meta-analysis, we developed a model to better explain the range of values.•Results have been used to test the efficiency of some European transport policies.

To quantify the economic impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is considered one of the most important challenges in transport engineering towards the goal of sustainability. Current values, which are mostly provided by the use of Impact Assessment Models, can vary up to six orders of magnitude (from $-10.00/tC to $7,243.73/tC). Within this range, the choice of an adequate monetary value is extremely difficult. In this paper, we create a database with nearly 700 different observations coming from 60 studies on the economic valuation of GHG emissions. Subsequently, we use a meta-analysis to investigate the variation in emissions costs in order to significantly reduce the overall uncertainty. The results of the meta-regression analysis are then tested to assess three possible transport policies that can be implemented at 2050 European levels. A specific unitary economic value of GHG emissions is provided for each policy, thus aiding policy-makers to valuate the real economic impact of transport due to global warming.