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2035 end date for polluting freight trucks needed to put trucking on path to zero carbon
(Transport and Environment, 16 Sep 2022) Polluting trucks will undo all the emissions savings from electrifying cars in the 2020s unless the EU changes their sales trajectory.
Trucks and buses make up just 2% of vehicles but are responsible for 28% of road transport CO2 emissions in Europe. As the EU prepares to tighten climate targets for heavy-duty vehicles in November, new analysis shows that the last heavy goods vehicles with engines will need to be sold by 2035 if polluting vehicles are to be off the road by 2050 – in line with the bloc’s net-zero emissions commitment.
Even with the current CO2 targets for truckmakers, trucks and buses would undo the entire emissions savings from cars and vans expected by 2030, the analysis by Transport & Environment (T&E) finds. This is being driven by increasing activity. CO2 emissions from heavy-duty vehicles increased by more than one-quarter between 1990 and 2019. Truck activity is expected to further increase by 44% between 2020 and 2050 and bus activity by 72%, according to the EU Commission.
Heavy-duty vehicles also burn massive amounts of oil. Currently, trucks and buses burn 42% of the diesel consumed by EU road transport.
Transport and Environment, 16 Sep 2022: 2035 end date for polluting freight trucks needed to put trucking on path to zero carbon
