Policies and investments for intermodal, low-carbon, efficient and resilient freight transport and logistics
Compendium of interventions to deliver quick wins and initiate long-term transformations
To translate the vision of the Manifesto for intermodal, low-carbon, efficient and resilient freight transport and logistics into actionable steps, SLOCAT and the Kühne Climate Center have embarked on the development of a compendium of policy and financing interventions.
This compendium identifies complementary 'best value' policies and investment approaches to deliver quick wins and initiate long-term transformations on freight transport and logistics.
Leveraging collective intelligence and best practices from stakeholders, it aims to steer global discussions and enable multi-stakeholder actions.
Explore the interventions
Economics, finance and investments
Integrated planning and operations
Mandatory, standardised and transparent tracking, reporting and evaluation
Data, research, technology, innovation and capacity building
The suggested interventions are highly complementary and should be implemented in a comprehensive and integrated manner to maximise their effectiveness. For example, establishing carbon dioxide emission reduction targets on freight transport and implementing regulations to achieve 100% of new sales of zero-emissions medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by 2040 are mutually-reinforcing interventions. Technological interventions, on the other hand, are closely related to operational gains and, though to a lesser degree, can also contribute to regulatory and economic improvements. While not all listed interventions can be implemented within a short time-frame, their pursuit can result in significant improvements especially when synergies are exploited between them.
SLOCAT and the Kühne Climate Center, together with ALICE Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe, CONCITO, IDDRI, International Transport Workers’ Federation, Smart Freight Centre and UIC International Union of Railways co-initiated the manifesto.
The compendium of interventions benefitted from inputs from the following organisations:
Asociación Sustentar, C40 Cities, Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), CALSTART, European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services (CLECAT), ClimateWorks Foundation, CONCITO, Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA), Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), Islamic Development Bank, Ministry of Transport of Kenya, KIFWA Ke, Kühne Logistics University, Ministry of Climate Change of Pakistan, Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority, POLIS Network, REN21, Smart Freight Centre, Ministry of Transport and Highways of Sri Lanka, Sustainable Transport Africa, Trans-Consult, UIC International Union of Railways, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), World Bank and World Resources Institute.
Ambitious, science-based targets, regulations, policies, standards
What are ‘best value’ interventions?
across borders
What actions need to be stopped?
Importing and procuring unsafe and polluting vehicles
The extension of a vehicle’s lifespan should be conditioned on the implementation of efficiency improvements (e.g., new, efficient engines or less carbon-intensive fuels).
Supporting future stranded assets
Fossil fuels represent more than 40% of transported freight globally in 2023. However, projections of fossil fuel consumption show a horizon of decrease, which, in turn, raises the risk of stranded assets.
Applying a narrow focus on CO2 emissions without considering the wider environmental, economic and social impacts
Promoting the use of hydrogen for road transport
Hydrogen as a transport fuel has a low energy efficiency. It is an energy carrier that needs to be produced, compressed, transported and converted, resulting in energy losses during each step of the process. Thus, it is a less efficient solution than battery-electric vehicles for road transport.
Economics, finance and investments
What are ‘best value’ interventions?
What actions need to be stopped?
Investments that are not aligned with the Paris Agreement targets.
Investments in freight transport operations which ignore external costs
Air pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change impact and adaptation, CO2 emissions, noise and safety issues are so-called externalities caused by current transport systems.
Investments that are narrow-focused on a single priority, a single transport mode (esp. road freight transport) or are not sufficient for significant, long-lasting transformations
The introduction of taxonomies which direct financial flows towards fossil fuel-intensive infrastructure and operations
Integrated planning and operations
What are ‘best value’ interventions?
and trade development
or sustainable
urban logistics plans
transport infrastructure
What actions need to be stopped?
Suboptimal truckload and running empty miles.
87 million tons of CO2 emissions are attributed to empty miles every year in the US.
Siloed planning and fragmented policies that miss a system-wide thinking approach.
Mandatory, standardised and transparent tracking, reporting and evaluation
What are ‘best value’ interventions?
transparency standards
What actions need to be stopped?
Shifting responsibility for emissions, pollution, health costs and other externalities to other geographies and stakeholders.
Focusing only on tank-to-wheel emissions instead of well-to-wheel emissions.
Ignoring the carbon footprint of products and services.
Transport activities in the industry sector are responsible for about 7% of total global GHG emissions. Companies and industries need to address all scopes of emissions, starting with the measurement of their impact and the evaluation of potential measures.
Data, research, technology, innovation and capacity building
What are ‘best value’ interventions?
and exchange
and logistics
and cooperation
What actions need to be stopped?
Policies or activities that focus solely on technologies should be avoided.
Perceiving any partnerships and programs as additional effort.
Failing to adequately make use of the full spectrum of the Avoid-Shift-Improve framework for sustainable transport.
This compendium is based on desk research across scientific articles, reports and literature, and has been the object of consultations with experts in August and September 2024. The policy and investment interventions have been selected and validated according to their applicability which is defined through the following criteria:
- – Universality (i.e., the activity can be scaled up and replicated across regions and subsectors);
- – Cost-effectiveness (i.e., benefits outweigh costs, esp. marginal abatement costs);
- – Political and technical feasibility (i.e., aspects of capacity and knowledge);
- – Implementation time-frame (i.e., the quicker it can be implemented the better).
Consultation workshop participants and survey respondents were asked to score each draft intervention on a 5-point Likert scale (see technical appendix). Concerns were expressed regarding the combination of political and technical feasibility into a single criterion given that it encompasses two distinct aspects. Participants underlined that in many cases an intervention might have strong technical feasibility but lack political feasibility.