Moving transport to net zero: What it takes to decarbonise the global transport sector

Hanna Wang-Helmreich, Wolfgang Obergassel and Oliver Lah

No 199, Wuppertal Papers from Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy

Abstract: What is necessary to reach net zero emissions in the transport sector on a global level? To keep limiting global warming to 1.5ê C within reach, the world has to decarbonise by mid-century, with every sector contributing as much as possible as soon as possible. This paper identifies what has to be done in road transport, aviation, and shipping to achieve net zero emission in the transport sector. For this purpose, it first sets the scene by providing an overview of the origins and impacts of the concept of net zero emissions in international climate policy as well as of the current state and future prospects of global transport emissions using currently available scenarios for low-emission and net zero transport. While for staying below 1.5ê C, the basic approach to reducing transport emissions remains unchanged from what has been suggested in the past, the set, intensity and pace of actions as to shift fundamentally. Without first drastically reducing traffic volume and shifting transport demand to low-emission modes, reaching net zero transport will not be feasible: the amount of additional electricity required to fully electrify the sector with renewable energy is otherwise just too huge. After portraying key instruments for achieving net zero emissions in land transport, aviation, and shipping, this paper identifies key barriers for net zero transport. Based on this analysis, the authors recommend the following to be able to move transport to net zero: 1. Adapt Decarbonisation Strategies to Different Transport Sub-sectors 2. Prioritise and Significantly Increase Investment in Zero-/low-carbon Infrastructure 3. Massively Invest in the Development and Roll out of Zero-/low-emission Technologies 4. Focus on a Just Transition to Overcome Social and Political Barriers 5. Increase International Support and Cooperation.

Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-tre
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/266160/1/1820718921.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wuppap:199

DOI: 10.48506/opus-8043

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Wuppertal Papers from Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().