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A paradigm shift to reduce transport emissions

Global freight transportation is currently responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions, rising to 11% if emissions from logistics sites are included. If business continues as usual, emissions will double by 2050 because demand for freight shipping is expected to grow threefold in this period.

In 2018, only 0.2% of the US$269 million in voluntary carbon offset investments went to transportation. The vast majority of these funds were invested in forestry, renewable energy, and other offsetting projects. These projects are certainly beneficial, but they don’t reduce greenhouse gases emitted by the transport sector itself, nor co-pollutants like black carbon, ozone, and nitrogen oxides.

What’s more, offsetting outside the sector reduces the incentive to innovate and advance carbon-neutral freight and other green logistics solutions. It’s time for a paradigm shift – an innovative approach to drive higher investment into greener technologies and strategies in the logistics industry. Carbon “insetting” offers a promising new pathway to decarbonize freight and minimize the transportation carbon footprint.

Carbon insetting offers a vast reservoir of untapped potential. If done right and industry-wide, it could result in a significant shift towards greener logistics technologies that could sharply reduce the size of the industry’s climate footprint.

Why do we know this? There are ample solutions out there just waiting to be taken to the next level. Alternative sustainable fuels like hydrogen and biofuels are two examples as is electricity generated from renewable sources. To scale up the development and use of these fuels will not only require new fleets of vehicles and vessels, but also new infrastructure for fuel production and distribution. That’s going to take an enormous capital investment that no one country – let alone company – can manage alone.

Fleet renewal, engine retrofitting, and increased efficiency are further solutions that, when applied at scale, would lead to long-term structural improvements up and down the logistics supply chain and sharply reduce the freight transportation industry’s carbon footprint.