Adopted in 2015 during COP21 (the 21st UN Conference on Climate Change), the Paris Agreement [1] is the second after the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 (Kyoto Protocol - an international treaty supplementing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Convention on Climate Change) and at the same time an international agreement on counteracting global warming). It entered into force in November 2016, after its ratification by 55 countries collectively responsible for at least 55% of global emissions [2].
As the first Agreement aiming at limiting the average temperature increase on Earth to significantly below and striving to limit this increase to it was also a binding document implementing the postulates of the Framework Climate Convention [7]. In order to implement these assumptions, the Agreement assumed that all countries, starting from 2020, would announce voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and would be reviewed and verified every five years until carbon neutrality will have been achieved by 2050 [5].
Unfortunately, despite the state decisions and declarations resulting from commitments and agreements (Kyoto, Paris), the world is heading for a global temperature increase of at least 3°C, which may lead to the intensification of extreme weather phenomena. This was indicated in the report on the emission gap developed by the United Nations Environment Program (2020) [6]. According to the report, the years 2020-2022 are not only the time of the Covid 19 pandemic, but also the years of record temperatures, floods, droughts, fires and storms. Therefore, decisive local actions of individual countries that respond to social challenges are necessary to ensure the comfort of people's lives and generate benefits related to biodiversity through the protection, sustainable management and restoration of natural ecosystems. Efforts to respond to the impacts of climate change should move towards adaptation plans at the national level, therefore public and private funding should be prioritized with rapid implementation. Adapting to climate change also makes economical sense. The Global Commission on Adaptation in 2019 estimated that a $1.8 trillion investment in climate adaptation measures would generate a return of $7.1 trillion in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts.
European Green Deal - Europe's climate neutrality
The assumptions of the Report on the 2020 emission gap and the Kyoto and Paris agreements and commitments are in line with the initiatives of the European Union. Currently, the most important EU initiative in the field of climate policy is the European Green Deal, which was presented in the announcement of the European Commission on December 11, 2019. It is a new comprehensive economic strategy of the EU, the main goal of which is to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and achieving climate neutrality by 2050, i.e. zero net greenhouse gas emissions. The European Green Deal is a strategy that covers many EU economic areas as it relates to energy, but also to industry, construction, transport, biodiversity, agriculture and the elimination of air, water and soil pollution. In order to prepare selected areas to meet the new emission reduction target, on July 14, 2021, the European Commission published a package of legislative proposals (the so-called "Fit for 55%" package). As part of the "Fit for 55%" package, the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions "Ready for 55": achieving the EU climate target for 2030 on the way to climate neutrality [13, 9 ]. This Announcement shows how this package secures an overall balance between fairness, emission reduction and competitiveness, and how different policy areas complement each other.
The European Green Deal is a continuation of international activities in the field of reducing negative climate change caused by human actions, and in the form of documents and normative acts it will determine the major part of the Union's internal policy for the next 30 years. And it should become one of the priorities of the internal policy of all EU countries [9].
European Green Deal - impact of transport
As indicated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (in short IPCC) in its April 4, 2022 report, human-related greenhouse gas emissions measured since the early 20th century are responsible for an increase in global average temperature of about 1.1°C and an increase in average sea level of 20 cm. The team also points to the fact that greenhouse gases, wherever they are emitted, remain in the atmosphere for many years, affecting the global climate [11].
According to the data compiled in the report published by the Joint Research Center operating at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, JRC), entitled "GHG emissions of all world countries 2021", in 2018. each inhabitant of the Earth was responsible for the emission of 6.71 tons of CO2eq (carbon dioxide equivalent), and due to the different level of economic development of individual areas of the world, this average may be much higher [7]. An resident's carbon footprint [9] is affected by their daily lifestyle and leisure choices, with each kilometer traveled by plane emitting 286 grams of CO2, while traveling by train emits 14 grams of CO2 [19].
On December 9, 2020, after the publication of the Report [7], a transport strategy entitled "Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy - putting European transport on track for the future"). Currently, transport-related emissions account for around 25%. total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, and their value is growing year by year. The European Union assumes that by 2050 Europe is to be the first climate-neutral continent, but in order to achieve this goal, major changes must also be made in transport [12].
The main goal of the European Commission in the field of mobility is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by the year 2050 in all transport sectors, which should be multimodal and emission-free. The most emission-intensive transport is road transport, therefore, in accordance with the assumptions of the European Green Deal, the market of internal combustion vehicles is to be subject to strict emission standards, and the regulations on CO2 emission standards for passenger cars and delivery vans are to be reviewed. An important change will be the inclusion of road transport in the European CO2 emissions trading scheme, which should motivate road users to increase the number of ecological vehicles by 2030 (Table 1).
Table 1. European Union 2050 goals for sustainable, smart and resilient mobility by 2050
no.
|
European Union goals by 2030
|
European Union goals by 2035
|
European Union goals by 2050
|
1
|
Have at least 30 million emission-free vehicles
|
Prepare zero-emission large aircraft for market launch
|
Make most passenger cars and delivery vans, buses and heavy vehicles zero-emission
|
2
|
Double the high-speed rail traffic
|
|
Double the rail freight traffic
|
3
|
Make regular public transport up to 500 km carbon-neutral.
|
|
Triple high-speed train traffic.
|
4
|
Implement automated mobility on a large scale
|
|
Introduce a comprehensive trans-European transport network (TEN-T) supporting sustainable and intelligent transport with its solutions
|
Source: own study based on the Announcement from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions (Brussels, 9/12/2020).
The goals set by the EC for 2050 in the field of sustainable, intelligent and resilient mobility show that the transport transformation in the coming years should be based on vehicles powered by alternative fuels, in particular electricity. It is electric vehicles, which mainly create electromobility, that are supposed to contribute to improving air quality on the one hand, and to stimulate economic development and increase energy security on the other [8].
In order to see how the electromobility of transport will affect emissions and climate change, and what strategies are needed to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change, Japanese researchers have developed a transport model to forecast global demand for passenger and freight transport. The transport model described in [20] has been combined with a global economic model and a simplified climate model to show the interacting mechanisms between transport electrification, economics, energy and climate change. The research by the Japanese scientists is an important step towards understanding important potential trade-offs between efforts to electrify transport and decarbonise the energy sector. Researchers believe that electricity research needs to be expanded, linked to the area of climate change, and to assessed in context of how a global electrification policy for transport should evolve over the coming decades. Research should go towards the development of breakthrough innovation technologies (e.g. autonomous cars, car-sharing and artificial intelligence).
In the context of the development of breakthrough technologies in the field of transport electromobility, systemic solutions in the field of energy security should be complementary to them [16]. Good systemic practices are implemented in, , for example, rail and sea transport. In both modes of transportation, the systemic solution is related to the scale effect. Consolidation of loads and large amounts of transported goods at one time contribute not only to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but also to the reduction of transport costs. Examples of good practice in the field of large transports are:
- The heaviest train in Poland, which carried 3.3 thousand. (90 TEU) tons of raw material on a 500 km route from the Euroterminal in the south of the country to the seaport in the north.
- The heaviest train in the history of rail transport in the world - the Australian BHP Run, which in 2001 carried approx. 100.000 tons of iron ore for about 300km.
The undisputed leader in the transport of goods is sea transport. Specialized cargo ships, mainly container ships, are used to transport goods. Currently, 90% of goods are transported by sea container ships. The largest among them, such as OOCL Hong Kong, can host 21,000 TEU (20' containers) on board. Containerization of transport facilitates easier placement of cargo, shortens loading time and lowers operation costs. The container as a loading unit protects the goods against external factors and allows for the continuation of transport by other means without the need to reload the goods, the so-called intermodal transport. The container, after unloading it from the ship, can be loaded onto a railway wagon or truck semi-trailer.