WWF offers "decarbonization tool"

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has developed what it describes as a "sectoral decarbonization tool for transportation", which says will help "transport companies, companies with logistics emissions in their value chains and road vehicle manufacturers to set emissions targets in line with the reductions needed to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement".

Fernando Rangel, Senior Technical Manager, and Paola Delgado, Research Manager at WWF’s Climate & Energy Practice, explained why the organization - which is generally better known for its efforts to save rhinos, pandas and the like - has taken this initiative: "Passenger and freight transportation is currently responsible for nearly one-quarter of all energy-related carbon emissions. And, while electric vehicles, transport demand management and other technological innovation offer great promise for decarbonizing the sector, it remains one of the fastest growing sources of carbon emissions.

"In today’s era of global supply chains and expectations of next-day delivery, climate commitments from the transport sector are not on track to keep global warming below 2°C by the end of the century.

"We need to bring every means to encourage the sector to raise its ambition regarding cutting its emissions."

The Science Based Targets initiative encourages and supports companies in setting emission reduction targets that are in line with what climate scientists say are needed to hold warming below 2°C.

The new transport tool uses the Sectoral Decarbonization Approach, which divides the global carbon budget – the total volume of greenhouse gas emissions that can be released while staying within the 2°C ceiling – among sectors, and then among emitting companies within the sector, taking into account decarbonization options and likely growth.

The new tool uses underlying data based from the Mobility Model (MoMo) developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

By using MoMo data, decarbonization pathways for different transport modes are derived, allowing companies to compare their emission reduction plans with IEA’s main emissions reduction scenarios, the 2°C scenario (2DS) and the Beyond 2°C scenario (B2DS).

The guidance that accompanies the tool will help companies decide which transport-related emissions they should include in their science-based target, which boundaries they should set, and which timeframes they should use.