According to heavy vehicle manufacturer Scania, figures from the European Commission confirm that the Swedish truck maker has achieved the greatest reduction in CO2 emissions of all the heavy vehicle manufacturers.
In a statement, Scania said the European Union (EU) Commission recently published statistics on CO2 emissions from new trucks for each heavy vehicle manufacturer registered in the Union from July 2019 to June 2020. These values form the basis for limits in the CO2 legislation and will be the basis for road tolls.
In the account, Scania is reported to be best in class in terms of energy efficiency and minimal CO2 emissions, 4.7 per cent below the CO2 limit set by the EU. Scania is said to be the only heavy truck manufacturer that is clearly below the EU limit, with most of the others above.
“The CO2 figures published by the EU show that there is a clear market leader in fuel consumption – Scania,” said Scania Senior Advisor, Henrik Wentzel.
“These figures are based on certified testing of components and trucks and reflect Scania’s determined, long-term work with aerodynamics and driveline product planning.”
Trucks, buses and coaches are responsible for about a quarter of CO2 emissions from road transport in the European Union (EU) and for some six per cent of total EU emissions.
Despite improvements in fuel efficiency in recent years, these emissions are still rising, mainly due to increasing road freight traffic.
In 2019 the EU legislated on the first-ever EU-wide CO2 emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles, and set targets for reducing the average emissions for 2025 and 2030.
According to the new rules, manufacturers must reduce CO2 emissions from new trucks by an average of 15 per cent from 2025 and 30 per cent from 2030, compared with 2019 levels.
“The advantage of the certified CO2 values that the EU publishes is that everyone has to calculate in the same way,” said Wentzel. “This is the fairest way available to compare emissions between manufacturers.”
Scania Head of Sustainability, Andreas Follér, said the figures from the European Commission also show that Scania is on track to reach its Science Based Target – to reduce CO2 emissions from the vehicles when in use by 20 percent by 2025, compared to 2015. Scania is said to be the sole European heavy vehicle manufacturer with an approved Science Based Target (SBT).
“Our ambition is to lower the climate impact in the short and medium timeframe for both SBT and EU legislation,” said Follér.
“The main difference is that EU CO2 legislation is only covering Tank-to-Wheel (TtW) emissions. Our SBT figures are measured Well-to-Wheel (WtW). If only looking at tailpipe emissions, it doesn’t matter whether a truck runs on 100 per cent Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), 100 per cent fossil diesel, biogas or natural gas. But for our Science Based Target, for our customers and for the planet, this matters a lot.”
Meanwhile, in other sustainable transport news, an agent of change and a leading voice in the climate debate, Sir Richard Branson, has called on companies to collaborate with their competition on climate change.
Branson spoke at the recent Sustainable Transport Forum in Stockholm, where representatives from government and business discussed how to increase the scale and pace of change, and how partnership and collaboration can be the force the world needs.
“It comes down to a group of people getting along, to work out how to collaborate and make the trucking industry more effective,” said Branson.
“We need to create new norms of corporate leadership by committing to an aligned pathway to net zero emissions.
“The current culture of accountability in business needs to include not only numbers and performance, but people and the planet. We have the duty – and power – to lead on the solution.”
Since transport is one of the major sources of CO2 emissions in the world – contributing to nearly one fifth of total global emissions – it is key to solving what some segments of industry describe as climate crisis, according to Scania President and CEO, Christian Levin.
“At Scania, we reduce emissions in line with science, and with the Paris Agreement,” said Levin. “These are corporate targets on the same level as our ambitions for volume and growth.”
Levin said he is confident that when it comes to Scania’s own direct global emissions, they will be at zero in ten years.
He asserted that Scania is part of a growing community of more than a thousand companies with a commitment to science-based climate targets, and challenged more players from the transport sector to join.
“We also expect governments to work together with us, and align with science in the same way,” said Levin. “Only then will the big investment in infrastructure come, supported by a policy framework that includes an effective price on carbon and road charges based on CO2 emissions.”
According to Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Director, Johan Rockström, the negative impacts of production, consumption and transport on the world’s climate are severe – worse than scientists predicted.
“We are racing towards 3.0-degrees C and beyond of global warming, with heat waves, forest fires, disease outbreaks, accelerated melting of ice and sea level rise,” stressed Rockström.
“But on a positive note, we have achieved significant progress in technology, while investment and legislation have also surpassed expectations, especially in transport. So, change is happening,” he said.