“Urgent action.” Those are the words Shell and Deloitte used to describe what it will take to get the world’s trucks and buses to produce net-zero emissions by 2050. Their report, Decarbonizing Road Freight: Getting into Gear, offered 22 solutions that could be employed over the next decade to help address the factors — economic, technical, regulatory, and organizational — behind decarbonization.
Let’s put the problem in perspective. According to Huibert Vigeveno, Shell downstream director, road freight is currently responsible for around 9% of global CO2 emissions. And freight is expected to double by 2050 which will add to the existing problem. The 2015 Paris Agreement, which the U.S. just rejoined under President Biden’s leadership, requires road freight emissions to drop 60% by 2050 from their 2018 levels. That is a significant challenge.
