EU Logistics Associations Demand a Balanced Package for Green Deal

The ‘Common Office’, the Brussels office of transport operators from France, the Nordic countries, and Germany, welcomes the upcoming ‘Fit for 55’ package and the goal of accelerating the ‘green transition’. However, they demand a climate package with appropriate measures and targets to combat climate change.

(Frankfurt/Main) The road freight transport sector has already made a significant contribution to sustainability over the past 20 years by reducing harmful emissions of NOx and CO as well as hydrocarbons and fine particulate matter by 87.8% to 97.5%, and is ready to take on the new challenges of reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector and contribute here as well.

A double and triple taxation of the same CO2 emissions through various instruments such as the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the ‘Eurovignettes’ directive, and the Energy Taxation Directive must be avoided. Freight transport companies are more than willing to purchase climate-neutral technologies as soon as they are available at competitive prices and supported by the establishment of a corresponding charging and refueling infrastructure. The ‘green transition’ must also be a just transition. Therefore, great attention must be paid to the potential rise in energy prices and how far end consumers are able to bear such increases.

Sustainability Only in Accordance with Private Sector

The public sector will not be able to finance the ‘green transition’ alone. More sustainability can only be achieved together with the private sector and its massive investments. This is particularly true for the medium-sized road freight transport sector. A financially healthy transport industry is necessary to achieve the CO2 emission reduction targets while ensuring the supply of goods and products to citizens in Europe, as was clearly demonstrated during the COVID-19 crisis.

However, as long as there is no alternative to today’s drive technologies available for purchase, the increase in transport service costs will merely have the effect of punishing the road transport sector and will not contribute to making the sector ‘greener’. Currently, the price of a battery-powered local transport truck is 3 to 4 times higher than that of a conventional drive truck. Battery-powered trucks for long-distance transport are expected to be available no earlier than 2025 due to the currently enormous battery weights. The first hydrogen truck in series production is planned for 2027.

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