External Costs of Passenger Cars and Light Commercial Vehicles in Latvia

Abstract The transport sector is one of the most polluting sectors in the world and 29.8 % of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Latvia come from it. Given this sector’s importance, it is surprising that the external costs of transport are often measured only from the air pollution perspective, mainly CO2 emissions and the health effects associated with these emissions. However, other external costs should be considered when calculating the impact of transport. In this paper, external costs dependent on the type of motor and energy used in vehicles are calculated for Latvia’s current passenger car and light commercial vehicle situation. These external costs are compared with different proportions of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Latvia’s passenger and light commercial vehicle fleet. In addition, changes in employment associated with changes in the automotive sector are calculated. The results indicate that having a higher BEV proportion in the fleet reduces external costs in almost all sectors and increases job positions available in the automotive sector.