The Paris Process on Mobility and Climate (PPMC) released this week for public consultation a global roadmap on decarbonizing transport. First, what is PPMC? PPMC is an initiative to integrate the sustainable development and climate change agenda for the transport sector before the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) process and was created prior to the Paris Agreement negotiations in 2015. And now it’s moving forward with the roadmap. The goal, as stated by PPMC, is to:
“…largely decarbonize and move from 7.7 Gt emissions/year down to 3 or 2 Gt by mid-century. Transport will be part of a ‘net-zero emission’ economy, in which remaining emissions from specific sectors will need to be sequestered or off-set through other means. Investing in GHG sequestration/removal solutions though R&D and implementation of proven solutions must start now.”
Folks, this is big. This is something the fuels and vehicles industries need to be paying attention to because this roadmap, once finalized, will serve as a basis to engage and push governments on implementing policies that also serve to meet Paris Agreement commitments.
PPMC envisions this transformation completed by 2060 for developed countries and 2080 for emerging economies and all transport modes would be included. The figure below shows the eight priorities the roadmap focuses on.
With respect to Priority 2, Low-Carbon Energy Supply Strategy, the roadmap highlights renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind) and clean hydrogen. The roadmap notes:
“So far the Transport sector has acknowledged the importance of a low carbon energy supply, but has not really acted in concert with the Energy sector to map out the steps to be taken to ensure the timely available supply of low-carbon energy for the sector. Although transport is one of the largest end-users of energy, the Energy sector is only recently starting to get in touch with the Transport sector to draft joint approaches. There is a growing urgency to develop joint pathways for the production of renewable sources of energy and their deployment in transport.”
The following figure highlights the goals under Priority 3, Modal Efficiency Improvement.
Basically, the roadmap envisions ZEVs for passenger cars:
“Moving down to 15gCO2/km w2w will require an almost complete shift to e-mobility with electricity and/or hydrogen produced through almost zero carbon techniques. Scaling up of vehicles meeting these emission requirements should be heavily incentivized to get a sizeable market by 2030+ and ensure significant “close-to-zero” emission fleets by 2060.”
Biofuels aren’t out of the equation though, and were specifically highlighted in concert with fuel economy standards and hydrogen to meet goals under the roadmap:
“Tighter fuel economy standards for trucks are a must as part of the transformation strategy, and a system of standards of increasing stringency needs to be put in place as soon as possible. Moving down below 100 gCO2/km on average is likely to be a post-2060 goal, and would most likely require clean hydrogen, second/third generation biofuels, and e-motorways (for which initial testing is underway).”
Biofuels were also noted as a strategy for shipping, heavy-duty trucking and aviation, but I didn’t see it noted anywhere as a strategy for passenger cars. Hint: that would be something for the relevant stakeholders to comment on (details on how at the end of this post).
The roadmap lists some “quick wins” or measures that can be implemented over the next few years. These are presented in the following table.
An initial round of consultations prior to the roadmap’s release has been conducted and a second round will be taking place from March 1-15, 2017. Comments can be submitted through the downloadable comments form, or to Cornie Huizenga (cornie.huizenga@slocatpartnership.org) and Patrick Oliva (m.patrick.oliva@gmail.com). The comments received will be discussed as part of the PPMC stakeholder meeting on March 24, 2016 in Paris. The results of the consultations and the discussions on March 24 will be integrated in the next draft of the Roadmap, which will be presented in the May session of the UNFCCC in Bonn, Germany.
Look for my upcoming podcast interview with Cornie Huizenga of The Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), one of the parties behind the PPMC!
