I was one of 14,124 observers at COP26 and there was plenty to observe. COP conferences have three layers: an inner sanctum where government negotiators wrangle over the climate agreement, a ‘blue zone’ full of country and organisational pavilions where many thousands busily network and, beyond the perimeter fence, a wealth of climate-related activity in exhibitions, seminars, cultural events and, of course, protests.
This makes it virtually impossible to capture the true essence of a COP. Its outcome is judged by the wording of the final document which, for COP26, was the Glasgow Climate Pact, ten pages of commitments to which 197 countries have agreed, often reluctantly. But this overlooks all the initiatives launched at COP26 by groups of countries, trade bodies, NGOs etc, which collectively should yield significant carbon reductions.
It is at this level, below the high-level climate diplomacy and out of the media spotlight, that you find references to the decarbonisation of transport and logistics. As in most climate forums, personal travel, particularly by car, received much more attention at COP26 than the movement of freight. Freight certainly merited much more consideration given its 40% share of global transport emissions. To date, it has been largely neglected in the COP process, with very few countries explicitly mentioning freight transport in their Nationally Determined Contribution submissions to the UN.
Several concrete actions did emerged from COP26 which should help to decarbonise freight operations. For example, 22 countries, including the UK, signed up to the Clydebank Declaration for Green Shipping Corridors that will create at least six zero-emission maritime routes between two or more ports by the middle of this decade.
Fifteen countries also signed a global MOU to ban the sale of new diesel-powered trucks by 2035 (gross weight < 26 tonnes) and 2040 (> 26 tonnes). These governments were undecided on the renewable energy technologies that will replace diesel engines, leaving it to the proponents of batteries, hydrogen-fuel cells and biofuels to lobby COP audiences on their respective merits. The case for highway electrification was relegated to an off-site meeting, but there plans were discussed for a British ‘trolley truck’ trial in Teesside, supplementing those already underway in Germany and Sweden.
Although the UN’s Climate Action Pathway envisages 40% of new truck sales in ‘leading countries’ being low-carbon by 2030, this will make little contribution to the halving of global CO2 emissions required by 2030. Over the next nine years, much of the reduction in logistics emissions will have to come from changes to business practice. One managerial initiative launched at COP26, should, for example, encourage companies to attach more importance to carbon intensity when procuring freight services. The Sustainable Freight Buyers Alliance (SFBA), established by the Smart Freight Centre and supported by companies such as Nestle, P&G, HP, Tata Steel and Maersk, aims to save 100 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
A common theme in most logistics-related initiatives at COP26 was multi-stakeholder collaboration, involving shippers, logistics businesses, IT companies, energy suppliers, infrastructure providers, financial institutions, NGOs and governments. In the words of President Biden at COP26, ‘solidarity, partnership, cooperation, and global collaboration are key.’