In late May this year the Federal Government, via the Honourable Catherine King, Minister for Transport and the Honourable Chris Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, jointly released the Transport and Infrastructure Net Zero Consultation Roadmap.
This Roadmap being one of six sectorial consultation papers designed to stimulate discussions and recommendations from various levels of government, industry and the public, with regard to fashioning the government’s policy pathway to meeting its stated climate change objectives.
These objectives being a legislated target to reduce national CO² emissions by 43 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
The Consultation Paper notes that the transport sector is the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia, amounting to 21 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 and since 2005, Australia’s transport emissions have increased by 19 per cent.
Without further action, transport will be the largest source of CO² emissions in Australia by 2030.
The Consultation Paper details that road transport is the main source of transport emissions, at around 83 per cent, with emissions from light vehicles (passenger cars, motorcycles and light commercial vehicles) responsible for almost 60 per cent of the sector’s emissions.
This is followed by heavy vehicle emissions (trucks and busses) that account for 23 per cent of all transport emissions.
The Paper notes that emissions from domestic aviation are 9 per cent of transport emissions, while rail accounts for roughly 4 per cent and domestic maritime about 2 per cent.
The Truck Industry Council (TIC) and our members welcomed the government’s Consultation Paper and we were particularly pleased to note that the Paper discussed the need for a “transition” to a net zero future.
Something that TIC has been championing for some time now. Carbon abatement will not be a ‘light switch’ moment, it will take careful planning, government incentives, both regulatory and financial and importantly, it will take time.
The size of the challenge for the road freight sector should not be underestimated.
There are currently approximately 735,000 trucks operating on Australian roads and due to the ever-growing freight task, that is expected to grow to 850,000 trucks by 2030.
By 2030 TIC estimates that there will be approximately 18,000 zero emission trucks and 6,000 low emission (hybrid) trucks operating in Australia.
That is a positive take up of these technologies, however these numbers indicate that approximately 98 per cent of all trucks operating in Australia will still require diesel by the end of this decade, noting that hybrid trucks will still require some diesel for their operation.
Another sobering statistic is that our truck fleet has an average age of approximately 15 years and that fleet age is increasing. This means that a new truck sold this year will not be retired until 2054.
It is quite obvious to TIC and our members that while the long-term solution to decarbonising Australia’s road freight sector will be a transition to low and zero emission trucks, there needs to be short and medium term incremental decreases in CO² emissions from the sector.
TIC has been championing such incremental improvements that could be deployed over the coming years, to 2030 and beyond.
These include, but are not limited to:
• Freight consolidation. For example, some half of existing articulated freight movements on the Hume and Pacific highways are semi-trailers. Moving freight from single trailers to B-doubles saves on average 30 per cent in CO² emissions.
• Low carbon fuels. A mandated R20 diesel fuel (a 20 per cent renewable diesel blend) run across the entire truck fleet would result in an approximate 18 per cent reduction in CO² emissions across the existing fleet
• Intermodal shift. For example, moving some container movements from seaport to distribution centres via rail and not truck, would reduce not only CO² emissions, but ease traffic congestion and have improved road safety outcomes. The Moorebank intermodal terminal and rail link in Sydney, is an example of this activity.
• Social change. Consumers ordering goods online and ‘ticking the box’ for next day delivery drives up CO² emissions. Accepting a longer delivery timeline allows for freight to be consolidated and moved more efficiently, reducing the carbon emissions of the delivery process.
The above actions, together with increased take up of new low and zero emission trucks will lead to a noticeable reduction in CO² emissions from the Australian road freight sector.
However it will require the right policy decisions by government to effect such change, the road transport industry alone cannot shoulder all the responsibility for this transition.
Tony McMullan CEO,
Truck Industry Council
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
