Global Standardisation of the Calculation of CO₂ Emissions Along Transport Chains—Gaps, Approaches, Perspectives of the Global Alignment Process

Abstract

The transport industry, consumers, shippers and political bodies are all pressing for a global standard for the calculation of emissions along supply chains. Comparability of the chains’ efficiency, reduction of energy consumption, transparency of the carbon footprint of products and identification of best practice are at the core of the need for such a standard. It has several important pre-conditions though: it needs to be globally applicable, cover all modes of transport and all supply chain elements, it needs to be easy to use and transparent in its mechanisms. Furthermore, it must be clear and concise, particularly in its requirements towards quality of data used for emission calculations, whether it is measured, standard or default values. In order to meet these requirements and to ensure the standard’s acceptance, its development needs to be industry-led. Additionally, the standard needs to balance the aspects of ease of use, transparency and flexibility. Several steps into that direction have been taken, such as: EN 16258, GHG Protocol, ISO 14064, ISO/TS 14067, standards developed by IATA, Smart Way and Green Freight Europe or tools and approaches such as EcoTransIT or GreenEfforts and many more. So far there is no standard in place though that aims at the specific transport chain requirements, is globally applicable and covers all supply chain elements as well as all modes. It is the aim of this paper to show in more detail, based on the findings of real-life test cases, which existing gaps need to be addressed in a next step of standardisation efforts. Furthermore, the paper describes which approaches and perspectives offer themselves from a combined industry-research perspective for the development of a standard for emissions along transport chains.