The fastest growing emitting sector

Transport has the highest level of reliance on fossil fuels of any sector today, which supplies about 95% of its final energy demand. It accounts for more than 20% of global energy-related direct CO2 emissions and produces a significant share of air pollution and related threats to public health.

Total land transport activity is expected to more than double by 2050 compared to 2015, making it the fastest growing emitting sector.

Decarbonisation of road transport will require the implementation of a broad set of policies, often summarised as a hierarchy of actions, as “avoid, shift, improve”. Avoid and reduce the need for motorised transport. Shift to more environmentally friendly modes. Improve energy efficiency of transport modes and increase the use of renewables.

Why Avoid?

Avoid policies drive a small but powerful set of initiatives, some of which may fall outside of the transport sector yet have important implications for it. Land-use policies and encouraging new activity patterns can help limit the overall need for transport.

Why Shift?

Shift policies move people to less-carbon- intensive modes of transport. Walking and cycling (also called “active transport”) will directly reduce a city’s carbon emissions by eliminating the use of energy for motorised transport entirely, while making cities more people friendly. Although walking and cycling involve no shifting from fossil fuels to renewables, it is worth noting that cities that rely strongly on these modes frequently have well-developed public transit systems, because active transport and public transit are complementary modes that work well together.

Why Improve?

Improve policies focus on improving the performance of vehicles vis-à-vis climate and air quality objectives, which may be accomplished by restricting the use of vehicles with internal combustion engines and by promoting ZEVs.

Cars and vans currently contribute the largest share of road transport CO2 emissions at around 60%, but heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) also contribute a large share, at more than 35%, despite accounting for less than 5% of the vehicles on the road.

Leading markets* will need to reach 100% sales of e-buses by 2030, 100% sales of zero emission cars and vans in leading markets by 2035 and 100% sales of heavy-duty vehicles by 2040.

Global momentum and ambition for the transition to ZEVs launched with the ZEV Declaration and the Global MOU on Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles.

On COP26 Transport Day, the Declaration on accelerating the transition to zero emission cars and vans was launched. A range of stakeholders jointly set out their commitment to work together towards all new car and van sales being zero emission by 2040 globally and 2035 in leading markets. Signatories at COP26 included: 38 countries; 6 major vehicle manufacturers (GM, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, BYD, Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover); 45 cities, states and regions; 28 fleets; 13 investors.

Also, The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Zero-Emission Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles launched by CALSTART and the Netherlands launched with 15 countries and over 30 sub-national governments and business signatories.

*Leading markets include the US, Europe, China and Japan.

Tracking Progress