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Abstract by the authors: Today, there is a great need for greener urban freight transportations due to their ever-increasing environmental impact. The planet’s climate has been significantly affected as the temperature is constantly rising and extreme weather events are occurring more and more often. Aiming to reduce the environmental impact of freight transportation in urban areas, an advanced vehicle routing and scheduling system for improving urban freight transportations, has been developed. This paper presents the functionality of the advanced system, while also analyzing its subsystems and demonstrating its use in a case study. The system is provided as an integrated cloud-based software to support the needs of logistics companies, in order to efficiently schedule their deliveries and perform the routing of their vehicles. The utilized multi-objective algorithm produces solutions that minimize either the distribution cost or the environmental emissions or a combination of these parameters. An application of the system is performed for validation purposes, concerning the comparison of the system’s results with corresponding real-life data provided by a medium-sized logistics company. The results of the testing reveal its significant contribution to the reduction of the environmental impact of the company’s distribution services.
Abstract by the authors: International supply chains generate substantial amounts of CO2 emissions. However, established methodologies for national freight transport emission assessments do not consider such international perspectives sufficiently. This research aims to show how logistic responsibility may be used in ex post transport CO2 emission assessments, for macrologistic or supply chain levels. We propose an original approach to estimate and allocate CO2 emissions generated by international freight transport between trade countries. The proposed method relies on the applied Incoterms® rules in sales contracts. A new indicator, the index of responsibility for transport emissions (RTE index), is introduced to allocate bilateral trade-related transport CO2 emissions. This is the first time that the Incoterms® clauses are used for macrologistic assessments of international trade-related transport CO2 emissions. Our approach is exemplified using bilateral trade-related transport flows between Serbia and other European countries. The introduced RTE-index is expected to help visualise average national trade-related transport CO2 emission responsibilities; increase awareness regarding environmental considerations among trade parties, logistics companies, and national organisations; and provide new perspectives for environmental transport policy actions.
Abstract by the authors: The transport sector contributes globally around 14% of the greenhouse gas emissions, and one-third to the European Union’s. As an important economic sector, it requires an in-depth discussion, especially regarding environmental impacts. This paper focuses on transport-related life cycle assessment studies, as they are vital for the decision-making processes at various levels. We have framed our research on the requirements of the International organization for Standardization. We have given particular attention to the quality of life cycle assessment phases (goal and scope, inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation). We have explored 34 research and review papers, acquired from the Web of Science database. Furthermore, we have carried out a content scope analysis using Leximancer to determine and assess existing research areas and future trends. Results are represented via concept maps, giving a comprehensive overview of the life cycle assessment research in the transport. Our study indicates several incompatibilities with the standardised methodology. The findings suggest improvements in the methodological perspective. For example, system boundary represents a weakness in several studies as well as a comprehensive definition of goals or functional unit. Reliable and standardised studies are better-supporting decision-making process, leaving out any ambiguous understandings or manipulation of the results. A content analysis revealed most frequently discussed concepts, which were ‘impact’, ‘transport’, ‘emissions’, and ‘carbon’, suggesting existing research trends, and identifying research gaps, such as consumption-related topics.
Abstract by the authors: Nearly two-thirds of the emissions that cause smog come from road transport. In April 2019, the European Parliament adopted new regulations on public procurement to encourage investment in clean buses—electric, hydrogen, or gas. Directive 2009/33/EC is to apply from the second half of 2021. The aim of this article is to make an attempt to simulate the number of zero-emission buses (ZEB) in European Union (EU) member countries in two time horizons: 2025 and 2030, and to forecast the number of clean vehicles in the precise time horizons, including before and after 2050. Research questions are as follows: (1) what will be the number of ZEBs in individual EU countries over the next few years; (2) which of the EU countries will reach by 2030 the level of 95% share of ZEBs in all buses, which are a fleet of public transport buses; and (3) in which year will which EU countries reach the level of 95% share of zero-emission buses. The method used is a Bass model. The conducted analyses demonstrate that, by 2050, only four of the EU members will be able to reach 95% level of share of clean buses in the city bus transport fleets. It is likely that other countries may not achieve this even by 2050.
Abstract by the authors: The transport sector is a major driver of climate change both globally and in the European Union (EU). While the EU as a whole is showing declining carbon emissions, transport-related emissions are higher than in 1990. Car traffic is responsible for around 12 percent of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen underlined the efforts to strengthen the decarbonization of the EU at the end of 2019 by publishing the European Green Deal (EGD) communication. In this paper, we analyze the controversy surrounding the emission performance standards for cars adopted in spring 2019. Car manufacturers must reduce the average carbon emissions of their fleets by 37.5% between 2021 and 2030. In this respect, the new emission performance standards are more ambitious than the previous ones. However, our argument is that without a major shift in the balance of power, extensive decarbonization and a departure from car-centered transport development will not be possible. Therefore, it is crucial for mobility research to critically engage with lobbying power in the EU and with concepts such as environmental leadership, which often underexpose the structural power of incumbent actors and existing path dependencies.
Abstract by the author: The development and introduction of new technologies are central to achieving sustainable transitions. Policymakers are important in enabling a successful transition. However, discourses about EU transport decarbonisation reveal multiple policy approaches to technology innovation, both in terms of decarbonising the car and building new alternative fuels infrastructure for transport. A discursive institutionalist analysis of these two separate but interdependent communicative discourses on road transport decarbonisation shows the complexities of facilitating transformative change. This shift requires coordination at all levels involving different actors and sector coupling to successfully decarbonise road transport
Abstract by the authors: Transport is one of the most essential sectors of the EU member state economies. Measurement of the efficiency of transport operations seems to be interesting from the perspective of both the economy as a whole and individual companies operating in the transport sector. The largest proportion of freight transport in the European Union is done by road. The purpose of this paper is to determine the efficiency of road and rail freight transport in old and new European Union countries based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. To that end, the authors present a literature review reflecting the current state of research on the importance of transport and its development in relation to the economy and environmental problems. Additionally, the methods of data analysis and variables are described. The empirical part is divided into a presentation of DEA results and correlation between the transport efficiency, gross domestic product (GDP), and CO2 emissions results. Moreover, spatial analysis was used to characterize road and rail transport efficiency in EU member states. The last section gives a summary of the study, and the obtained results are compared with data from the literature review.
Abstract by the author: The green-deal carbon neutrality target set for 2050 and CLOVE consortium predictions of NOx reductions confirm the efforts of the European commission to achieve a clean and sustainable transportation. In this sense, several solutions are needed to fulfill with the short-term regulation requirements and provide a sustainable transportation transition. This work assesses the potential and challenges of using a Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition, RCCI, engine in a series hybrid medium duty truck fueled with both conventional and synthetic. The numerical results enabled to design the hardware and control system of the concept. Experimental results show a good agreement with numerical simulation estimation with CO2 tailpipe below 3%. Overall, using diesel and gasoline, it is possible to fulfill the current EUVI regulation without after-treatment while promoting benefits of more than 10% in CO2 Tank-to-Wheel emissions. The use of Oxymethylene Dimethyl ethers, OMEx, instead of diesel allows further reductions of both NOx and soot emissions due to its no carbon-to-carbon bonds and higher oxygen content. The Well-to-Wheel CO2 analysis shows that OMEx-Gasoline operating as series hybrid achieves above 25% of CO2 benefits against current commercial truck.
Abstract by the authors: Road traffic is one of the major sources of many of the worst pollutants, including carbon dioxide (C02), carbon monoxide, carcinogenic particles and noise. The past decades have seen a dramatic rise in these harmful effects on human health, that proved to cause at the same time massive damage to the natural and built environment. In response to this aggravating situation, the new European Commission's President Ursula von der Leyen placed as the centrepiece of her political mandate 'the European Green Deal', a comprehensive climate and nature package of measures to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. To reach this very ambitious goal, there is a need for very creative and efficient policy solutions. And this is the scope of the current study.
From the author's introduction: Le secteur des transports et de la mobilité durable fait face aujourd’hui à de profondes mutations. Au niveau mondial, la demande de mobilité est en progression constante : celle-ci est en effet tirée par la croissance de la population et du niveau de vie en particulier dans les pays émergents, ainsi que par la mondialisation de l’économie qui s’est traduite par une augmentation continue des échanges de biens et de services. Simultanément, la prise de conscience des conséquences du réchauffement climatique, causé par l’accumulation dans l’atmosphère des gaz à effet de serre, conduit les gouvernements à repenser leurs politiques dans le secteur des transports pour y limiter la hausse des émissions de CO2. Comment répondre à la demande croissante de mobilité tout en engageant une diminution forte de l’impact carbone de ce secteur encore très dépendant du pétrole ?
Abstract by the authors: Transport has a significant contribution to climate change and many post-Soviet republics, including Latvia, struggle to decrease these emissions to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. In this paper, we have focused on the assessment of environmental taxes (energy, transport) as the most important economic instrument used in Latvia’s environmental policy to reduce transport-related emissions and predict road transport decarbonisation pathways using the regression analyses. The results show that existing environmental taxes in Latvia reduce transport emissions and also have a significant fiscal impact. The research confirms that fuel consumption has the most significant effect on transport emissions. To achieve a decarbonisation target, a significant reduction in fossil fuel consumption is required. This can be achieved by increasing taxes on fuel, supporting environmentally friendly infrastructure as well as increasing motivation for electric car use and social innovation (e.g. modal shift, car-pooling, teleconferencing) to decrease the demand for mobility.
Abstract by the authors: Road freight transport contributes to a significant and growing share of greenhouse gas emissions. This study analyses the development of environmental practices and awareness of road freight hauliers and whether hauliers witness an interest from their shippers towards energy efficiency. Results of an original survey (N = 256) conducted in 2019 among Finnish hauliers are presented and compared with those from a similar survey completed in 2011 (N = 295). The results highlight the lack of improvement in hauliers’ environmental practices during a decade when ambitious climate goals were set. Even though hauliers share the view that emissions from road freight transport must be reduced in future, their environmental practices did not change much during the 2010s. The hauliers rarely perceive an interest from their shippers towards energy efficiency. The results show that hauliers should be supported and encouraged to pursue more environmentally aware practices. Shippers in the supply chain should be a driver, not an obstacle, to increasing road hauliers’ sustainability. There should be more communication between hauliers and supply chain actors, and environmental sustainability should gain more importance when selecting carriers.
Abstract by the authors: The land transport sector is one of the major emitters of CO 2 and one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise. This study employs an environmentally-extended input-output model to conduct an economy-wide assessment of CO 2 emissions in Cyprus, associated with a 22% increase in the final demand for the output of the sector by 2030. Model results indicate that the land transport sector creates the third highest (direct and indirect) CO 2 emissions within Cyprus economy; for every 1 million euro increase in the final demand of the sector's services and products, 407 additional tons of CO 2 are emitted. Considering that temperature in Cyprus is projected to increase by up to 4.5-5°C by the end of the century, our findings highlight the importance of the land transport sector in the transition of Cyprus to a low-carbon economy and the urgency of implementing in-sector cost-effective decarbonisation strategies.
Abstract by the authors: The European Union (hereafter – the EU) takes a strong position in the global fight against climate changes by setting ambitious targets on reduction of greenhouse gas (hereafter – GHG) emissions. A binding target is to reduce those emissions by at least 40 % below 1990 levels till 2030, which would help make Europe the first climate neutral continent by the mid-21st century. Consequently, the expected 2050 emission reduction target for the EU is 80 %–90 % below 1990 levels. The EU’s new economy decarbonisation framework – The European Green Deal – outlines and summarises Europe’s ambition to become a world’s first climate neutral continent by 2050. This supposedly can be achieved by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities across all policy areas and making the energy transition just and inclusive for all. The transport, and particularly road transport, is one of the most significant fossil fuel dependent segments of national economies across the EU. Oil dependency of all segments of the transport sector makes it the single biggest source of GHG emissions in the united Europe as well. Road transport is responsible for about 73 % of total transport GHG emissions, as Europe’s more than 308.3 million road vehicles are over 90 % reliant on conventional types of oil-based fuels (diesel, gasoline etc.). However, there is a wide range of low-emission alternative fuels for all kinds of transport that can reduce overall oil dependence of the EU’s transport sector and significantly lower GHG in road transport. Among these alternatives a tandem of the natural gas and biomethane could be named as one of the most promising for short and mid-term transport decarbonisation solutions both in the EU and Latvia.
Abstract by the authors: To accomplish the 1.5 °C and 2 °C climate change targets, the European Union (EU) has set up several policy initiatives. Within the EU, the carbon emissions of the road transport sector from the consumption of diesel and gasoline are constantly rising. (1) Background: due to road transport policies, diesel and gasoline use within the EU is increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and adding to climate risks. (2) Methods: sustainability analysis used was based on the method recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (3) Results: to meet its road transport requirements, the EU produces an estimated 0.237–0.245 billion tonnes of carbon per year from its total consumption of diesel and gasoline. (4) Conclusion: if there is no significant reduction in diesel and gasoline carbon emissions, there is a real risk that the EU’s carbon budget commitment could lapse and that climate change targets will not be met. Sustainability analysis of energy consumption in road transport sector shows the optimum solution is the direct electrification of road transport.
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