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How to decarbonise European transport by 2050

Transport is Europe's biggest climate problem accounting for 27% of its GHG emissions in 2017. This report summarises a series of studies by Transport & Environment. (T&E analysed pathways for decarbonisation in the road freight, aviation, shipping and car sectors.) It demonstrates that transport can and must be decarbonised by 2050 at the very latest, not only to limit global warming but also to ensure Europe's competitiveness, its energy sovereignty and the health and well-being of its 500 million citizens.

Published on November 27, 2018 - 08:45

Ending the cheating and collusion: Using real-world CO2 measurements within the post-2020 CO 2 standards

The biggest failure of the current regulation to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars and vans has been the inability to deliver emissions reductions on the road. Whilst new car CO2 emissions measured using the obsolete laboratory test (NEDC) have fallen by 31% since 2000, on the road the reduction is just 10%. The gap between test and real-world performance has leapt from 9% in 2000 to 42% in 2017. Had the gap remained constant there would have been 264 Mt CO2eq less cumulative emissions by 2017. The additional fuel burned to produce these emissions cost drivers an extra €150 billion EU-wide. 

Published on August 29, 2018 - 08:58

US truck fuel efficiency standards: costs and benefits

This study shows that, in the period 2008 to 2011, a time before CO2 standards for trucks came into effect in the US, truck prices increased but fuel efficiency remained broadly static. Coming into force in 2011, standards ensured the deployment of fuel saving technologies and brought about a 24% fuel efficiency gain from 2011 to 2017.

Published on January 10, 2018 - 06:55

Will European trade undermine the EU’s move to clean biofuels?

The EU is negotiating trade deals with Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), Indonesia, and soon Malaysia, These trade deals represent a risk for the EU’s sustainable transport plans. All mentioned countries are producers and exporters of crop-based biofuels, especially from palm and soybean oil that have higher overall emissions than fossil diesel. All ongoing negotiations include chapters on energy and raw materials.

Published on July 6, 2017 - 15:09

Roadmap to climate-friendly land freight and buses in Europe

This report assesses how the EU and Nordic countries could achieve zero GHG road freight and buses by 2050. The report analysed “off the shelf” technologies and strategies (defined as low hanging fruit), such as improving fuel efficiency in diesel trucks or moving more freight into railways. In addition, it also assessed how we could move beyond “low hanging fruit” and fully decarbonise the road freight sector. For this we looked at technologies such as catenary-hybrid, battery electric, hydrogen and power to liquid. All of this information was fed into T&E’s in-house transport model.

Published on June 22, 2017 - 15:46

Draft 2030 biofuels proposal: a brief impact assessment

Last July, the European Commission’s Strategy for Low Emission Mobility promised a ‘phaseout of food-based biofuels’. However, this promise of a phase-out is not visible in Annex X of a leaked draft proposal of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The leak points to the Commission’s intention to keep 3.8% of 1G biofuels in transport fuels in 2030. This is only 1.1 percentage point less than the 4.9% share of 1G biofuels in transport in 2014. In this briefing T&E analyses: how much would the Commission’s draft proposal increase EU transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the 2021-2030 period compared to a ‘proper’ phase-out of 1G biofuels?; how much underestimation of EU transport GHG emissions in the 2021-2030 period would the draft proposal lead to – as a result of the zero-counting of biofuels – compared to a ‘proper’ phase-out of 1G fuels?

Published on November 22, 2016 - 08:00

Dieselgate: Who? What? How?

This report, released on the first anniversary of the Dieselgate scandal, exposes the shocking number of dirty diesel cars on the EU’s roads and the feeble regulation of cars by national authorities that have focused on protecting their own commercial interests or those of domestic carmakers. In the US, following the disclosure that VW had cheated emissions tests, justice has been swiftly and effectively delivered. This is in stark contrast to Europe where VW claims it has not acted illegally, no penalties have been levied and no compensation has been provided to customers.

Published on September 19, 2016 - 00:02

Get Real testing campaign: why new laboratory tests will do little to improve real-world fuel economy

The report shows that the CO2 emissions gap between the independently performed WLTP and NEDC tests is small, and suggests the new WLTP test procedure is likely not sufficient to reduce or close the gap between official and real-world CO2 emissions. The report also stresses the lack of transparency about vehicle data, which complicates the analysis of independent tests and makes possible cheating harder to detect.

Published on March 5, 2019 - 06:00

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