2035 end date for polluting freight trucks key to zero carbon transport
An influential European sustainable transport NGO has warned that current 2025 and 2030 standards for truck makers are too weak and polluting trucks will undo all the emissions savings from electrifying cars in the 2020s unless the EU changes their sales trajectory.
Trucks and buses make up just 2% of vehicles but are responsible for 28% of road transport CO2 emissions in Europe. As the EU prepares to tighten climate targets for heavy-duty vehicles in November, new analysis shows that the last heavy goods vehicles with engines will need to be sold by 2035 if polluting vehicles are to be off the road by 2050 – in line with the bloc’s net-zero emissions commitment.
Truck activity is expected to increase by 44% between 2020 and 2050 and bus activity by 72%, according to the EU Commission. This means that with the current CO2 targets, trucks and buses would undo the entire emissions savings from cars and vans expected by 2030, the analysis by Transport & Environment (T&E) finds.
Sofie Defour, clean trucks director at T&E, said, “Transport is Europe’s biggest climate problem and trucks play an outsized role that is still growing.
“Ending the sale of new combustion engine freight trucks in 2030 is the safest bet for the climate, but the reductions required might be too steep to implement without disruption. 2035 is the latest feasible date to reach 100% zero emission vehicle sales if we are to put road freight on track to reach zero emissions by mid-century. The 2035 scenario would leave only a small number of diesel vehicles – older than average retirement age – still on the road in 2050. Trucks in Europe currently have a lifespan of 18 years, on average.
“Setting a 2040 deadline would be too late, resulting in trucks emitting 644 million tonnes of CO2 more by 2050 than under the 2035 scenario. That’s 4% of the EU’s total remaining carbon budget – equivalent to the current annual road transport emissions of Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain and Poland combined. Delaying the end date for combustion engines to 2040 would also force lawmakers to take drastic and costly measures to remove the 20% of the truck fleet that would still run on diesel in 2050 in this scenario.”
T&E calls on the European Commission to propose the following targets when it revises the CO2 standards for heavy-duty vehicles in November:
Set a 100% CO2 reduction target for medium and heavy trucks in 2035
Set a 100% zero emission sales target in 2027 for urban buses, in 2035 for small trucks and coaches, and in 2040 for vocational trucks
Raise the ambition of the 2030 CO2 reduction target to -65% for medium and heavy trucks
Introduce interim targets in 2027 to accelerate the transition
Introduce energy efficiency standards for trailers