Engineering news
Only about a third of companies in the transport sector have plans to reduce their carbon emissions, according to research by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).
The CDP said that just 36% of the transport companies it surveyed had carbon reduction plans in place, meaning they significantly lag behind the Global 500 index of firms. Fifty-one per cent of the Global 500 companies across all sectors have set targets for carbon and energy reduction. The level of reporting of emissions to the CDP, a not-for-profit organisation that scores businesses according to their attempts to disclose and mitigate emissions, is also higher among those companies.
“The report is a first glimpse at the transport sector’s global impact on consumption and emissions. It also indicates a relatively low level of awareness and readiness to effectively leverage regulations and low-carbon alternatives from a competitive standpoint,” the CDP said. It added that the transport industry accounted for 13% of global emissions. In wealthy countries, the sector is responsible for 60% of oil consumption.
Only 9% of companies in the transport sector reported having investments in new technologies or emission reduction initiatives, the CDP said. Less than half of the transportation companies surveyed reported having a clear understanding of the risks and business opportunities associated with regulations. Europe is leading, however, with 52% of companies disclosing carbon emissions and 36% committing to investing in low-carbon alternatives.
Joanna Lee, chief partnerships officer at the CDP, said the regulatory drivers for reducing carbon emissions were spurring the development of low-carbon alternatives in the transport sector in Europe. The US was a different story. “When a country is heavily dependent on oil it can be a challenge to cut emissions,” she said.
Transportation is a major contributor to the US economy. One firm highlighted by the report for doing well in terms of its response to climate change was logistics and delivery firm UPS. "We use multiple approaches to reduce our carbon output, including the use of technology to cut the miles we fly and drive, leveraging telematics and routing technologies to improve the efficiencies of our drivers, investing in alternative fuel technologies for our fleet and minimising redundancies in our delivery network," said Bob Stoffel, the UPS senior vice-president who oversees sustainability programs. "Through the use of routing technology alone, we avoided driving more than 20.4 million miles, with an associated emissions avoidance of 20,000 metric tonnes [of CO2] in 2009."
New technologies in the transport sector that can cut emissions include installation of renewable energy systems, developing more efficient transport routes, low-carbon fuels, and innovative vehicle design or product innovation into hybrids or electric-powered vehicles.
Lee said the aviation sector faced a particular challenge. “There is no viable, mainstream alternative to kerosene,” she said.
EADS recently demonstrated a project in which an aircraft was flown powered by algae-based biofuels.