Over the past 15 years, a lot of progress has been made at EU level and globally through new regulatory actions and continuing collaboration between actors to improve the transparency of transport GHG emissions and external costs monitoring.

This is manifested through:

• Regulatory initiatives including Regulation (EU) 2023/1805 (FuelEU Maritime), Regulation (EU) 2023/2405 (ReFuelEU Aviation), Regulation (EU) 2015/757 (EU MRV) and especially, the recent Commission’s proposal for the Regulation on the accounting of greenhouse gas emissions of transport services (CountEmissions EU), and Directive (EU) 2023/2413 (Renewable Energy Directive);
• Relevant EU research projects, including “Carbon Footprint of Freight Transport” (COFRET), “Logistics Emissions Accounting & Reduction Network” (LEARN) and the on-going “Creating Legitimate Emission Factors for Verified GHG Emission Reductions in Transport” (CLEVER);
• Standardisation work, including ISO 14083, the official international standard developed between November 2019 and October 2022 and published in March 2023 as part of the 14000 family of ISO GHG-related standards;
• Regular updates of the Handbook on the External Costs of Transport;
• Industry initiatives, such as the Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) Framework, the industry-led guideline for GHG calculation and reporting in the global logistics sector.

Building on the initiatives listed above, proposals should undertake further work to ensure that:

• The full climate impact of transport operations is covered in a comprehensive and consistent way;
• Relevant open items identified in the emissions accounting reference methodology set out under the Commission’s proposal on CountEmissions EU can be scientifically clarified and closed;
• Any detailed tweaks to the methodology that have come to light through application can be developed and tested in view of the implementation of the CountEmissions EU framework;
• New technologies, such as generative Artificial Intelligence, are considered in developing datasets and methodologies;
• Relevant data is available for the proper implementation and seamless integration of requirements set in other EU climate related legislation in transport, including Regulations on Fuel EU Maritime, ReFuelEU Aviation, EU MRV, and Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 on electronic freight transport information[11].

The Action will play a central role in contributing to the establishment of an unambiguous scientific framework aimed to tackle emissions in transport. However, the Action should also facilitate alignment between EU policy development and market implementation, especially towards enabling market-based accounting approaches that would support proactive investment in low emission fuels and associated transport services.

The proposals should address all of the following aspects:

• Explore, assess and establish the state of the art regarding issues of measuring and calculating specific types of transport-related emissions for which there is no clear consensus on the market, in particular:
  • black carbon emissions, which primarily result from the combustion of fossil fuels in compression ignition engines;
  • radiative forcing, which has been suggested as having a strong supplementary climate impact at high altitude and is already included in an inconsistent manner across some, but not all, transport GHG reporting programs;
  • GHG emissions from vehicle manufacturing and scrappage, which, although not directly linked to transport operations, do contribute to overall life cycle transport emissions;
  • GHG emissions that result from the installation of transport infrastructure, which would need to include the definition of rules for the combination of operational and life cycle emission calculations into a meaningful and consistent presentation format;
  • GHG emissions related to the maintenance operations associated with transport operations that are currently excluded;
  • GHG emissions from information and communication technology (ICT) equipment and data servers that support the delivery of transport operations.
• Clarify specific methodological issues for enabling more accurate quantification of emissions and setting proper incentives towards efficient and sustainable transport options, addressing in particular:
  • a detailed methodology for GHG emissions stemming from temperature-controlled transport and cool chain operations;
  • allocation of GHG air transport emissions across passengers and freight transported on the same aircraft.
• Based on relevant European/national/sectorial repositories, explore, assess and contribute to an EU core dataset of default values for GHG emissions intensity of transport services, including for supporting relevant EU regulatory initiatives (such as CountEmissions EU);
• Building on the results of the CLEVER project, where relevant, update the list of applicable GHG emission factors for emissions stemming from energy production, distribution and use, in particular in the context of relevant EU regulatory initiatives (such as CountEmissions EU). Consistency with data and methodologies in current energy legislation such as Directive (EU) 2023/2413 (Renewable Energy Directive)[12] must be ensured;
• Define R&I gaps on emissions accounting of transport and provide scientifically sound recommendations to address those gaps to improve the existing GHG emissions measuring framework.

The project’s main governance (e.g. Steering Group, Advisory Board) is expected to provide for direct involvement of all relevant stakeholders.