Today, transport is responsible for around a quarter of the European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions making it the second biggest greenhouse gas emitting sector after energy. Road transport alone contributes about one-fifth of the EU’s total emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas.
Between 1990 and 2007, transport-related greenhouse gas emissions increased 36%, while in other sectors these decreased 15% during the same period. Worse, it is expected that, without additional policy intervention, EU transport-related greenhouse gases emissions would be about 75% higher in 2050 than they were in 1990.
Direct Link to ECF CO2 report ‘Quantifying CO2 savings of cycling’
What is the EU doing?
The European Comission published in November 2018 its Long Term Climate Strategy, A Clean Planet for all, containing a commitment to net zero carbon emissions across all sectors, including transport. The aim being to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C. This plan continues with the EU's existing 2020 and 2030 carbon emissions goals, claiming that the EU is on track to meet its goal of 40% emissions reductions by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.
According to the Long Term Strategy however, the EU's current actions will not be enough to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Without further progress emissions are only predicted to be reduced by 60% by 2050, falling significantly short of the target. The EU's main response to this has been legislation that requires Member States to produce a set of 10 year plans, to be renewed and updated every 10 years, the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). The first drafts of these plans are due to be submitted to the commission (and disseminated publicly) on the 31st December 2018. The European commission will then assess these plans, in cooperation with stakeholders, and give an opinion on whether they are ambitious and realistic enough. If not, the commission will then enter dialogue with the relevant Member State and develop a new plan, before 31st December 2019. 'Action at the union level' is promised if no agreement can be reached.
ECF has prepared an overview for our members that goes into more detail on the NECPs. Explaining the opportunity that the NECPs pose to aid decarbonisation and to get more people cycling, more often.
What is ECF doing?
ECF prepared a report on the potential of the bicycle to help reach the greenhouse gases emissions reduction targets, which as expected, provides evidence that cycling emits significantly less ‘greenhouse gas emissions’ than all motorised transport means, a conservative estimation being that, for every 4 km that are cycled instead of car driven, 1 kg of CO2 is saved. The main findings of this report where presented during Velo-city Global 2012.
In order to reach the ‘transport GHG emissions’ reduction target agreed, it is essential that both technical and non technical options are taken up; in particular, ECF stresses the need not to neglect the potential of higher inter-modality and modal shift to less carbon intensive modes of transport. Here is a briefing note.
Comments to this report are more than welcome. The European Union Cyclists Group (EUCG) already sent its comments on the methodology to analyse the impact of GHG emissions by switching to cycling: EUCG – ‘A different assessment of the GHG emissions linked to bicycling’.
ECF also participated in the 2012 Ride to Rio initiative. Read more here.
Reducing transport GHG emissions by increasing active mobility has also tremendous co-benefits. We roughly calculated EU value of reduced mortality linked to cycling, using WHO’s Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for Cycling.