EU Green Transport Roadmap

The EU has a number of collective environmental targets for the years 2030 and 2050. If these targets are to be reached, and particularly if they are to be achieved in a cost-effective fashion, they will require collective EU solutions such as the EU ETS. However, this is also the case for non-ETS sectors, such as the transport sector, where it is anticipated that the transition to a more energy efficient and decarbonised transport sector will largely be driven by EU policy.

During the upcoming couple of years, a number of important transport related decisions will be taken within the EU. Most prominent among these involves CO₂ emission targets for new vehicles after current emissions standards expire for vans in 2020, and cars in 2021. Once seen as a first mover and leader in terms of emission standards for passenger vehicles, the EU is now starting to lag behind.

The Energy Fund and the Ecological Council therefore initiated a project with the aim of raising the ambition level for the transport sector in the EU. Theaim was to engage the relevant EU players via two half-day arrangements in Brussels where transport analyses and fact sheets were presented. The focus was on presenting and analysing ‘best practices’ within the regulating of the transport sector.

Ea contributed to the project by undertaking a simplified EU version of the Danish Green Roadmap 2030 analysis, which found that A 40% reduction in CO₂ emissions from the transport sector in Denmark by 2035 was possible by relying on a mix of currently available technologies, and that the socioeconomic cost of doing so is much lower than earlier anticipated. 

The focus of the project was on estimating the cost of bringing about a 35-40% CO₂ emission reduction in the EU transport sector by 2030 via a range of currently available technologies. These findings were presented at two half-day events in Brussels in 2017.