This is a 3 year study (to June 2013) involving collaboration between transport researchers and political scientists to examine the strategy development and delivery chain for carbon emissions in the transport (and related) sectors. The research uses the multi-level governance framework to understand the impacts of on-going processes of territorial decentralisation (up to Europe, down to local levels) and functional decentralisation (out to nongovernmental actors) on the central steering capacity of politicians, the scrutiny capacity of democratic arenas, and the overall efficacy of the system as a whole.

The research has three main phases.

1. An analysis of how transport policy and carbon emissions management have co-evolved and a systematic review of the evidence base for selecting low-carbon policies.
2. A theoretical exploration of what MLG can contribute to the study of carbon emissions management in the transport sector and four case studies based around the role of local and sub-regional decision-making agencies in delivering the low carbon agenda.
3. A series of expert and lay workshops will be used to understand the gap between the expert view of effective policy development and delivery structures and the public's views of acceptable and accountable structures and processes.

The project runs until June 2013 and will produce a series of outputs for policy makers, practitioners and the research community.