Options for the road freight sector to meet long term climate targets

We conclude that meeting long-term European climate goals requires a CO2 reduction of 60% to 90% in this sub-sector, assuming other transport modes substantially reduce their emissions, as well. For this sub-sector, we found a 90% maximum potential to reduce CO2 emissions. However, fulfilling this potential would require huge up-front investments, particularly in the initial years of technology adoption both in the vehicles and the energy infrastructure they require. Findings from interviews on the improvement of logistical efficiency give reason to believe that these investments are unlikely to be made. Combining cost-effective technological and logistical efficiency measures, in our opinion, can achieve a CO2 reduction of 20% to 30%, in the long run. Although further research is needed there are indications that a reduction of 30 to 50% in CO2 emissions may be attainable through logistic co-operation between companies and increasing scale and professionalism of carriers. In any case this means that alternative, cost-ineffective measures would be required to achieve long-term policy goals.