TPI releases new transport report

The Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) has published its latest Transport report, covering the ‘carbon performance’ and ‘management quality’ of 62 companies in the automobile, airline and international shipping sectors. Direct emissions from the transport sector make up almost 25% of energy related CO₂ emissions worldwide. 

The report shows these sectors urgently need to do more to transition to a low carbon economy, with only 23% of companies having emissions reduction targets that align with keeping global temperature rises to 2^oC or below by 2030. By 2050 that figure falls to only 18%. ‘The airline sector remains the worst performing of the transport sectors on carbon performance, with an over reliance on off-setting,’ notes the TPI.

Antonina Scheer, Researcher at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, comments: ‘There is a unique opportunity for industries to transform themselves as we look to build back better post‐COVID. Unfortunately, our findings show that the transportation sector still has the brakes on in transitioning to a low carbon future, with only 18% of firms assessed in line with a path to keep global warming at 2°C or below in 2050. It is particularly alarming that some companies are backloading efforts to align with the Paris goals to 2050. The transportation sector needs to step on the accelerator in addressing carbon performance and management quality because we need improvements from this sector now, not in a few decades, to ensure a net zero future takes off.’