Economic Evaluation of Future Carbon Dioxide Impacts from Italian Highways

In recent years, a large body of literature has been published on the management of CO2 emissions. Despite the proposal of several methods for their monetisation, a definitive method remains to be found. This paper reviews some of the commonly adopted techniques and evaluates their pros and cons. The most reliable values for the years 2010-2020 have been determined with the Avoidance Cost technique. Three different scenarios are analysed, each of them representing a different political strategy regarding the reduction of CO2 emissions. The values obtained are then applied to the case study of Italian highways, demonstrating that the application of an aggressive emissions reduction policy would require an investment of about €17,000 million more than a conservative policy.