Good news this week in the fight to eliminate transport emissions — or, at the
very least, good first steps. Here are a few highlights on what this could mean
for the carbon impact of transport in a variety of areas …
Land
Yesterday, at
COP26,
over 100 national governments, cities, states and major businesses signed the
Glasgow Declaration on Zero-Emission Cars and Vans to end the sale of
internal combustion engines by 2035 in leading markets, and worldwide by 2040.
At least 13 nations also committed to end the sale of fossil-fuel-powered
heavy-duty vehicles by 2040.
Headline signatories included US automakers
Ford and General Motors,
European car giants Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, British automaker Jaguar
Land Rover, and China’s BYD; the world's second-most populous country,
India; corporate fleet owners and purchasers including INGKA Group/IKEA,
Sainsbury’s, Tesco and
Unilever; Dutch
fleet-management giant LeasePlan, which
rents 1.7 million cars in 30 countries; and rideshare platform Uber.
But notably absent from the
Declaration
were the world's top two carmakers — Toyota and
Volkswagen
— as well as major car markets China, the US (also the two highest
carbon-emitting countries) and Germany.
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According to the International Energy
Agency, transportation is
responsible for 24 percent of direct CO2 emissions from fuel combustion. Road
vehicles — cars, trucks, buses and two- and three-wheelers — account for nearly
three-quarters of that.
For GM, the Transport Day commitment expedited its previous climate-action
timeline — expanding from eliminating tailpipe emissions from new light-duty
vehicles by 2035 to a transition to 100 percent zero-emission vehicles by that
time.
“We know climate action is a priority and every company must push itself to
decarbonize further and faster. That’s why GM announced our science-based
targets, as well as plans to become carbon neutral in our global products and
operations by 2040,”
said
Kristen Siemen, GM’s VP and Chief Sustainability Officer. “We have committed
to invest $35 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles and plan to introduce
more than 30 electric vehicle models globally by 2025. To get communities ready,
we are also investing nearly $750M through 2025 in order to create more access
to public, home and work chargers. All of this builds on our Equitable Climate
Action
initiative,
which aims to ensure the all-electric future is inclusive for our current and
future workforce, customers, and communities.”
While this is indeed noteworthy, the absence of some of the world’s biggest
emitters is problematic — as is a lack of corresponding commitment from
governments to ensure the necessary charging and grid
infrastructure
will be built to support electric vehicles.
“The message for decision makers is: We need to make sure that we start
normalizing that by 2035, we stop selling petrol and diesel cars,”
said Monica Araya, a
ClimateWorks Distinguished Fellow and part of the Steering Committee for the
global Drive Electric Campaign. “The
point is getting used to the idea of having a calendar so we can shift to
zero-emission options in all segments. This is not just for advanced markets in
developed countries — it’s also for developing economies, because we know the
worst pollution is there.”
Araya also stressed that during the transition, developing countries must not
become the dumping grounds for old technology from the richest ones — and
instead, they should be seen as drivers of transformational change.
Air
Meanwhile, airlines from around the world have pledged their support for novel
propulsion technologies such as electric and hydrogen-powered planes; while
others have made new commitments to sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).
20 airline members of the World Economic Forum’s Target True
Zero
initiative committed to utilizing technology — such as electric, hydrogen and
hybrid aircraft — to address the climate crisis. The development and delivery of
novel propulsion technologies, powered by sustainable energy sources, were
highlighted as key towards helping the aviation industry minimize its
environmental impact.
“The adoption of these technologies into the global fleet — through either new
aircraft design or the retrofitting of conventional aircraft — can help reduce
the climate impact of our operations while preserving the immense economic and
social benefits that aviation brings to the world,” the
statement said.
The signatory airlines — Aero, Air New Zealand, Air Nostrum, Alaska
Airlines,
Amelia, ASL Aviation Holdings, Braathens Regional Airlines,
easyJet, Finistair, Icelandair, Iskwew Air, Loganair,
Mokulele, Ravn Alaska, SoundsAir, Southern Airways Express,
Surf Air Mobility, Viva Aerobus, Waltzing Matilda Aviation and
Xwing — operate over 800 aircraft and carry over 177 million passengers on
1.8 million flights a year and hope to use this influence to create market
demand for new types of aircraft.
Key commitments:
-
Short-haul flights first — Industry leaders aim for 30 percent of the
aircraft serving shorter-range routes added to their fleets from 2030 to be
powered by new technologies such as hydrogen and electric power, with
longer-range aircraft to be added once this becomes technologically and
economically viable.
-
Partnership — The signatories called on aerospace manufactures to
prioritize innovation that will allow them to meet these goals.
-
Public-private cooperation - The Target True-Zero airlines also urged
governments to do their part in supporting the transition to cleaner
aviation. Key calls included providing incentives for operators to adopt
these technologies and addressing the infrastructure issues needed to
support their use in airports across the world.
“We know that the journey to decarbonising the aviation industry is not
something that one airline can tackle alone,” said David Morgan, Chief
Operational Integrity & Safety Officer at Air New Zealand. “Initiatives like
True Target Zero are vitally important to share information, learnings and
accelerate the adoption of zero-emission aircraft around the globe. Air New
Zealand is thrilled to be on board with other industry leaders and we look
forward to working towards our net-zero goals together.”
Along with the Target True Zero members’ commitment, the Sustainable Aviation
Buyers Alliance (SABA) announced
it has opened to new members for the first time.
The Alliance was launched in April by RMI and the EDF,
to pool the purchasing power of fuel buyers to stimulate the scaling of supply
chains for alternative fuels and to encourage policy support. Its founding
members included Bank of America,
Boeing,
Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, McKinsey and
Company, Meta, Microsoft,
Netflix and Salesforce. As of this week, United Airlines,
JetBlue, Alaska Airlines and Amazon Air — the e-commerce giant’s
aviation arm — have been added to the roster.
But until sustainability issues surrounding
biofuels
can be resolved — and promising solutions made from captured carbon, from
startups such as Air Company and
LanzaTech,
can be scaled — we’re still largely flying blind on low-carbon air
travel
in the short term.
Land, air and sea
In other news, nine major
companies — including Amazon, IKEA,
Inditex, Michelin, Patagonia and Unilever — announced that they will
shift 100 percent of their ocean freight to zero-carbon vessels by 2040.
But environmental groups Pacific Environment and Stand.earth, which lead
the Ship It Zero coalition,
said
the switch needed to happen much faster — that shortening the timeline to 2030
would ensure the shipping industry did its "fair share" to keep global warming
under 1.5 degrees Celsius, not to mention a current snafu facing the industry.
"While we thank Amazon, IKEA, Patagonia and other retailers for making a
historic commitment to zero-emissions ocean cargo shipping, this commitment does
not address our current port pollution crisis,” said Dawny’all Heydari,
Ship It Zero Campaign Lead at Pacific Environment. “Right now, due to COVID-19
and holiday-related trends, an unprecedented number of fossil-fueled cargo
container ships await entry into ports, harming frontline communities and our
climate with deadly air pollution and greenhouse gases. We need companies to
take accountability now — by committing to 100 percent zero-emissions ocean
cargo shipping this decade.”
Again, all of this represents a promising start, but we all know how long it
takes for large companies and countries to put their words into
action
— and when it comes to avoiding the most catastrophic effects of climate
change, “better late than never” might not be accurate.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Nov 11, 2021 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET