Coalition announces 2021 projects to decarbonise transport and logistics

The Coalition for the Energy of the Future has announced its seven projects to be deployed in 2021 to fight climate change within the transport and logistics industry. The coalition was launched in late 2019 to accelerate the development of future energies and technologies. The aim is to sustain new green mobility models and to reduce the impact of transport and logistics on climate change. The coalition's 14 members include Total, Engie, Schneider Electric, Amazon Web Services and Wärtsilä. New members include Airbus, Bureau Veritas and PSA International. The seven projects to be developed by the coalition include:

1. Green hydrogen: Capitalise on Carrefour projects Cathyope and H2Haul, to experiment with hydrogen-powered fuel cell long-distance zero-emission trucks for the first time in Europe, and propose a consolidated order book for goods' transportation on French and European roads by the end of the first semester in order to accelerate hydrogen availability.
2. Biofuel: Propose and test the first bio-crude oil dedicated to maritime needs, to increase the use of Biofuel along the supply chain and develop the use of 3rd generation biofuels.
3. Carbon neutral liquefied natural gas (LNG): Draw a pathway for bioLNG toward carbon neutrality, highlighting key issues to be addressed.
4. Green electricity: Identify and convert along the global supply chain the key elements (depots, terminals & warehouses) into green self-sustained entities to accelerate the electric conversion in the transport chain.
5. Zero-emission vehicles for road, air and sea transportation: Share by the end of the first quarter of 2021 a common vision and roadmap to develop innovative R&D projects around new energies such as Hydrogen or Ammonia.
6. Digital eco-calculator of the global transport chain: Develop a digital eco-calculator certifying door-to-door CO2 impact on any given transportation routing, as well as proposing low-emission alternatives.
7. Intermodal green hubs: Propose a business plan to sustain port conversion into new green multimodal hubs using lower-impact routing with greener energy by end of 2021.

By 2030, the Coalition's three main goals are:

• To unlock a more extensive portfolio of clean energy sources;
• To decrease the energy consumption per kilometer-equivalent of goods mobility;
• To reduce the proportion of emissions linked to transport and logistics.

Jean-Brice Dumont, executive vice president of engineering, Airbus, said: "We are convinced of the benefits that joint initiatives can bring in finding innovative solutions to reduce the C02 emissions of our industry - because we know this challenge requires a collective effort. We believe this coalition will foster the development of creative projects with effective results that will pioneer new mobility models across the sector." This story was originally published on Smart Energy International.