Over the past twenty years, the Chinese transport sector has undergone a monumental transformation. Today, China is the world’s largest car market, has the planet’s largest High-Speed Rail (HSR) system, is the world’s second largest civil aviation market and houses seven of the planet’s ten largest container ports. An astounding achievement considering the country had under 20,000 registered private cars in 1985 and not a single HSR line until 2008. Simply phrased, China has ‘put the pedal to the metal’. However, China’s rise came along with alarming environmental and climate change issues as transport emissions have increased more than tenfold since 1980. Today, China is not only the world’s single largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, but its transport sector is the country’s third largest contributor. Furthermore, China is plagued by notorious air pollution that provokes alarming health concerns amongst its 1.4 billion strong population. With incomes continuing to grow among…
