A Meta-Heuristic Approach for Assessment of Automobile Related Policies, and Their Impact on Carbon Dioxide Emissions.

摘要

After the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, governments are becoming more wary of the effects of Green House Gases (GHGs) on the climate, and are trying to control and reduce their country's share by various means. From Cap-and-Trade programs, to introducing hybrid and plug-in vehicles, and creating standards for every source of pollution, they are trying to limit these emissions from every aspect possible. One of the pollution sources with a great deal of contribution to the total GHGs emitted is the transportation sector. Setting policies and regulations is one effective way to limit the share of these sources. In United States, CAFE Standards are one of the sets of regulations developed to control the efficiency of vehicles. Other measures like levying fuel taxes or penalties for inefficient cars can be used alongside these regulations in order to enforce such limits on manufacturers and individuals, to reduce the ambient pollution level.;In this study, the effect of different policies, on vehicle efficiency and amount of CO2 they emit are examined. These policies are introduced in different levels of a vehicle's lifetime. Emission standards which have to be followed by the manufacturers in the production stages, "Gas Guzzler" taxes on those vehicles with emission rates above the standard, purchase and registration taxes on the consumers upon purchase, and finally, yearly fuel and ownership costs, are some of the policies currently implemented on such on-road mobile pollution sources. Here, a new method for finding the optimal combination of such policies is introduced. Ant Colony Optimization is the algorithm that creates the body of this method. This algorithm presents a nature related approach for optimization problem and is modified to solve the emission reduction problem. Modeling results showed that depending on the policies and consumer behaviors, there could be a combination that will result in the emission reduction in the long run.