Carbon Pricing on Road and Maritime Transport in the EU
As our recent blog post shows, EU companies will soon need to monitor and report their GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, which includes emissions from transporting their supplies and products. As reaction to this individual EU member states have already started writing laws accordingly. If your company has major logistics operations, you may already collect that data, or be preparing to do it ahead of the first EU deadlines.
But there is another piece of puzzle coming up soon in Europe’s strategy to tackle climate change: emissions from EU road freight and maritime transport are going to have a price tag attached.
EU ETS Carbon Price for Road and Maritime Transport
The EU emissions trading system (ETS) already covers emissions from electricity and heat generation, energy-intensive industry sectors (such as oil refiners and steel manufacture), and commercial aviation. The EU ETS guidelines require these sectors to use or buy carbon allowances to cover their emissions.
However, the EU ETS is now being reformed to include emissions from EU maritime and road transport, with different transition phases from 2024 to 2027 (depending on the type of transport and emission). Companies covered by the ETS will have to buy carbon allowances for these types of transport as well.
What it means for you if you run logistics processes: more than ever, avoiding emissions makes plain good business sense.
Since costs have always been a major driver in logistics, the ETS for shipping of carbon pricing will drive transport prices up. Your company may be affected directly if you operate your own fleet, or indirectly, as your transportation partners and suppliers will need to pay for carbon allowances.
EU Carbon Price - Cut Your Emissions and Costs
Gear up for maximum efficiency in your transportation management: optimize your network to reduce your total mileage, use multi-modal transport planning to opt for greener modes where it’s feasible, consolidate loads wherever possible, eliminate empty runs and demand greener vehicles from your carriers. Depending on your logistics network and urgency of shipments, there are many parameters that you can tweak across your entire logistics process to reduce GHG emissions and reduce the carbon allowances needed.
Good transportation management solutions will help you reduce your carbon emissions, and hence decrease the EU carbon price for road and maritime freight, as well as give you visibility into your emissions. Don’t wait for the reformed ETS to take effect – logistics processes are complex and decarbonizing them can take some time. Optimize your transportation processes and reduce your carbon emission as well as the coming carbon pricing for Road and Maritime Transport with Alpega TMS!
Contact us now to discover the ways you can reduce your carbon emissions with Alpega TMS.