Decarbonizing the Transportation Sector

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May 2021
By LIU DAIZONG
F
ACED with the increasing threat from global warming, the importance of limiting the rise of the global temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius has become self-evident. To meet the Paris Agree-ment objective, by the end of this cen-tury, global carbon dioxide emissions are expected to fall to zero.
As for China, in September 2020, President Xi Jinping announced the meaningful goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060. This not only dem-onstrates China’s determination to go green, but will also serve as a stimulus for Chinese companies to accelerate technological innovation and industrial upgrading towards a green and sustain-able economic development mode. China’s promise for carbon neutrality
by 2060 has set a good example for other nations. Within weeks of Xi’s announce-ment, Japan and South Korea followed suit by launching their own carbon-neutral targets respectively.
A Key Sector for Realizing the 2060 Goal
In China, going carbon neutral means to drastically reduce carbon emissions. According to the World
Decarbonizing the
Transportation Sector
A hydrogen fuel cell compression truck independently developed by Jinghuan Equipment, a subsidiary company of Beijing Environmental Sanitation Engi-neering Group, is launched on November 13, 2020.
eConomy / new visTas
Resources Institute (WRI), energy pro-duction, industries, transportation, con-struction, and agriculture and land use are the top five carbon emitting sectors in China. Among them, the transporta-tion sector, accounting for nine percent of the country’s total carbon emissions, remains a hard nut to crack.
Let’s take Germany, a manufacturing power with a similar economic struc-ture to China, for example. Germany started decarbonizing its economy in the 1990s. By 2017, even though its total greenhouse gas emissions had fallen by a third, emissions from its transporta-tion sector were still going up. This is a lesson for China.
In February, the State Council of Chi-na released the “Outline of the National Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Transportation Network Planning.” The document laid out China’s transporta-tion program going forward to 2035, clearly noting that carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector should peak as soon as possible, and its emission intensity in 2035 should be significantly lower than it was in 2020. The road ahead of China in reaching this goal will not be an easy one. For one, carbon emissions in the transpor-tation sector are very complicated, ways of discharging are diverse, emission structures vary, and methods for calcu-lating emission amount are complex, making it difficult to decide where to begin. Having said that, the good news is that according to research, road transport has the greatest potential as a ringleader in this sector to lead carbon emissions.
According to the Second Biennial Update Report on Climate Change in China, in 2019, road traffic took up 84.1 percent of China’s transportation emis-sions. To be specific, as a manufacturing power, and a world leading economy in the online consumption field, China’s freight transport consumed half of its total energy, making it far higher than
the international average of 37 percent,
leaving big room for emission reduction.
In passenger transport, automobiles
motorcycles used up to 45 percent of
energy, while public transport only
used 4 percent. Emissions from cycling
and other modes are so low that they
are not worth mentioning here. As we
can see, a structural shift prioritiz-
ing green travel and the promotion of
electric cars would be significant for
the transportation sector to cut down
carbon emissions.
Achieving Carbon Neutrality in
Road Transport
Globally speaking, developed coun-
tries are also trying their respective
green deals to decarbonize their trans-
portation industry, making it an im-
portant starting point for economic re-
covery and transformation in the post-
pandemic era.
In the European Green Deal, the EU
pointed out that investment in green
transportation infrastructure should be
increased by improving the transport
capacity of railway freight and inland
river shipping, developing the intel-
ligent connected vehicle industry and
intelligent transportation system, and
increasing the construction of EV charg-
ing piles.
The America Rescue Plan of the
Biden administration also pays much
attention to the transportation industry,
including strengthening investment in
intercity rail transit construction, main-
taining the normal daily operation of
public transportation, accelerating the
development of the new energy vehicle
industry and charging stations, and de-
veloping autonomous driving.
In recent years, China has imple-
mented a series of policies to address
climate change in the road transport
sector. At the same time, the develop-
ment and breakthroughs of science and
technology have also brought the road
transport industry into an unprecedent-
ed period of technological innovation.
Clean technologies such as new ener-
gy batteries and vehicles are developing
rapidly, and AI and big data technolo-
gies are also widely applied in the trans-
portation industry. In China, the num-
ber of new-energy vehicles accounts
for nearly half of the world’s total. The
To go from the “peak” to
“neutrality” means that
emissions in China’s road
transport sector need
to go from peak to zero
within 30 years.
50CHINA TODAY
development of green travel, such as bike-sharing and unmanned driving, is presently leading the international trend and presenting unprecedented opportunities for emission reduction in the transportation sector. However, to go from the “peak” to “neutrality” means that emissions in China’s road transport sector need to go from peak to zero within 30 years. This not only calls for drastic reforms, but also technological breakthroughs. An-other report from WRI about the paths to “net zero” emissions in China’s road transport by 2050 recommends that the following key actions be taken: First, reach a 35 percent carbon emission reduction through a change in transport patterns: develop a new freight transport mode featuring high-way-railway and highway-waterway connection, promote green travel, in-crease the protection of the rights of road for public transportation, promote the network of vehicles and digital road infrastructure, rationally allocate urban street functional space, and implement a regional pedestrian and bicycle system planning.
Second, realize another 35 percent emission reduction through decarboniz-ing vehicle fuels: accelerate vehicle elec-trification and low-carbon fuel replace-ment. In addition to promoting new energy passenger vehicles, more electric vehicles are also needed in urban logis-tics and intercity freight transportation. Third, contribute 12 percent emission shrinkage to the carbon-neutral target by reducing vehicle miles traveled: es-tablish a charging mechanism in road
traffic based on the carbon consumed and make use of the pilot zero-emission zones across the country to tap into the potential of the market in carbon-neutral transportation.
In addition, the remaining 18 per-cent reduction will require cross-sector cooperation, and shall be achieved by resorting to clean power grids and re-newable energy sources.
The 14th Five-Year Plan period is the first five-year period after China’s embarking on a new journey to build a modern socialist country in all respects.
A zero-emission path for road transport and related pilot work will not only drive green growth in the post-pandem-ic era, but also promote the progress of China’s carbon neutral goal. C
LIU DAIZONG is director of the World Resources Institute (WRI) China Sustainable Cities Program.
A visitor takes photos of an autonomous-driving tram model at the exhibition of Excellent Industrial Design Award in China at the World Industrial Design Conference (WIDC) 2020.
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