Situation Requirements and Policy Priorities for Carbon Reduction of Road Transportation in China

Tan Lin

(China Transportation Institute at Tongji University，Shanghai 200092)

It is the climate ambition of China committed to the world,to achieve “carbon emission peak” by 2030 and“carbon emission neutrality” by 2060.Transportation,as one of the three major carbon emission industries along with industry and buildings,is confronted with difficult dual task of promoting the zero carbon transformation as well as supporting economic growth comprehensively.Road Transportation in particular,which is not only the transportation mode with the most volume,but also the transportation mode with the most carbon emissions,is becoming the top priority of achieving the “2030·2060”vision goal.Systematic deployment for road transportation carbon reduction has been made by various existing policy and plans,focusing on transportation structure adjustment,equipment upgrading,clean energy promotion,scientific and technological innovation,monitoring system improvement and other major initiatives.In order to implement the major strategic policies such as “The Action Plan for Achieving the Carbon Peak by 2030” and “The Outline for Building a Transportation Powerful Country”,and to support national modernization,it is suggested that further top-level policy priorities can be implemented in three major areas,namely,strategic carbon reduction initiative,technical carbon reduction initiative and managerial carbon reduction initiative.

1.Requirements for Carbon Reduction of Road Transportation in China

1.1 Transportation as the main source of global carbon emissions

According to data from International Energy Agency,Our World in Data and other institutions[1,2],the total carbon dioxide emissions generated by global petrochemical energy consumption will be more than 37 billion tons by the end of 2021,which has exceeded the level before the outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2019.From the perspective of different countries,China is the largest country of carbon emissions with about 11.5 billion tons currently,accounting for about 21% of the global carbon emissions.From the perspective of different sectors,the transportation sector accounts for about 16.2%～25% of global carbon emissions,which is one of the three major sector sources of carbon emissions,along with industry and buildings.The transportation sector in China emits about 1 billion tons of carbon roughly.According to different calculation method[3～5],the transportation sector accounts for 7.6%～11% of ChinaIs total carbon emissions,which is still one of the main sources of carbon emissions,ranking after manufacturing and construction,power and industry.

Figure1.Carbon Emission by Sector in China

1.2 Road as the largest source of transportation carbon emissions in China

From the perspective of transportation modes,road transportation is not only the transportation mode with the most volume,but also the mode with the largest share of global transportation carbon emissions.The carbon emissions from road transportation account for about 11.9% of the global carbon emissions.As to the case in China,road transportation accounts for more than 80%of domestic transportation carbon emissions,which is far higher than the proportion of passenger and freight volume transported.Therefore,it is one of the main tasks for China to promote road transportation carbon emission reduction,so as to achieve the “Double Carbon” strategy.

1.3 Road freight as the top priority of road transportation carbon reduction in China

Among all types of road transportation vehicles,trucks account for 60% of the road transportation emissions.Especially,heavy trucks account for more than 50% of the total road transportation carbon emissions.In contrast,the carbon emissions of any other types of vehicles do not exceed 6%.In 2020,China has more than 270 million civil vehicles,including 30.4 million trucks as well as 8.4 million heavy trucks.Trucks and heavy trucks will account for 11.1% and 3.1% of the total civil vehicles respectively.The proportion of heavy truck emissions in road transportation far exceeds the proportion of its vehicles.Thus,heavy trucks will be the top priority of carbon emission road transportation and the entire transportation field in China in the future.

2.Policy Focus of China's Road Transportation Carbon Reduction Development

2.1 Main policies for carbon reduction development of road transportation

2.1.1 National level

Both “The Outline for the Construction of a Transportation Powerful Country” and “The Outline for the Planning of the National Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Transportation Network” present the aim of a strong transportation country by 2035,and propose strategic tasks such as “building a green and efficient modern logistics system” and “strengthening energy conservation,emission reduction and pollution prevention”.The State Council issued “The Action Plan for Achieving the Carbon Peak by 2030”,which takes the“Green and Low Carbon Action in Transportation” as one of the top ten actions,calling for accelerating the formation of green and low carbon transportation system,ensuring the growth of transportation carbon emissions within a reasonable range,and putting forward specific goals such as “striving to reach the peak of oil consumption in land transportation by 2030” “the average annual growth of container rail-water intermodal transportation will be more than 15% in the 14th Five Year Plan period”.“The Work Plan for Promoting the Development of Intermodal Transportation and Optimizing the Transportation Structure”issued by The General Office of the State Council,proposes to take the development of intermodal transportation as the starting point,to promote the deep integration of various transportation modes and further optimization of transportation structure adjustment.It aims to form a development pattern of bulk cargo and container medium and long-distance transportation dominated by railways and waterways basically.The national railway and waterway freight volume should be increased by about 10% and 12%respectively,compared with 2020.“The 14th Five Year Plan for the Development of Modern Comprehensive Transportation System” proposes to comprehensively promote the green and low-carbon transformation of transportation throughout its life cycle,and reduces the carbon dioxide emission intensity of transportation by 5%.In addition,such national policies as “The Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Deepening the Pollution Prevention and Control Campaign”,“The Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Completely,Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Carbon Peak &Carbon Neutralization Strategy”,“The New Energy Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)”,put forward specific requirements and action plans for road transportation energy conservation and emission reduction as well.

2.1.2 Sectoral level

“The 14th Five Year Plan for Highway Development”requires the implementation of the principle of green development,by promoting the coordinated development of highway transportation and ecological protection,deepening the construction of green highways,promoting the conservation and intensive use of resources and energy,strengthening energy conservation and emission reduction and pollution prevention in the field of highway transportation,and improving the green development level of the highway industry comprehensively.“The 14th Five Year Plan for the Development of Green Transportation” calls for coordinated promotion of high-quality development of transportation and high-level protection of the ecological environment by proposing seven key tasks,including building green transportation infrastructure,optimizing transportation structure,promoting the application of new energy,promoting in-depth treatment of transportation pollution,strengthening green transportation science and technology support,improving the green transportation regulatory system,and deepening international exchanges and cooperation.“The 14th Five Year Plan for the Development of Comprehensive Transportation Services”requires the establishment of a clean and low-carbon green transportation service system,and puts forward the main tasks of establishing a low-carbon transformation policy system,carrying out green travel action in depth,promoting the demonstration of urban green freight distribution,and vigorously developing clean transportation equipment.In addition,policies such as “The Action Plan for Diesel Truck Pollution Control”,“The 14th Five Year Plan for Modern Circulation System”,“The Green Transportation Standard System (2022)” and “The Notice on the Establishment and Implementation of a Vehicle Emission Inspection and Maintenance System”,put forward specific requirements and action plans for road transportation energy conservation and emission reduction as well.The transportation departments also actively adopted the intermodal transportation demonstration project,the establishment of national transit metropolis,the establishment of green freight distribution demonstration cities,green travel action plans and other specific actions,to promote low-carbon development of road transportation.

2.1.3 Local level

Most provinces and cities promote the development of local transportation carbon reduction actively,through comprehensive transportation “14th Five Year Plan”,green and low-carbon transportation planning,and pilot construction of transportation powerful country.According to the public information,the “14th Five Year Plan”Comprehensive Transportation Plans of 29 provinces has the deployment of green development of road transportation.In addition,6 provinces have released the “14th Five Year Special Plan” for green transportation,2 provinces have released the “14th Five Year Special Plan” for energy conservation and environmental protection in transportation,12 provinces have released the “14th Five Year Special Plan” for the development of new energy automobile industry.6 provinces,including Hubei,Jiangxi,have set targets for the reduction rate of carbon dioxide emission intensity of transportation.17 provinces,including Guangxi,Tianjin and Jilin,have set targets for the reduction rate of carbon dioxide emission per unit transportation turnover of operating vehicles.14 provinces and cities,including Zhejiang,Guangdong and Beijing,have set targets for the proportion of green transportation trips in central urban areas[6].

2.2 Policy Priorities of Road Transportation Carbon Reduction Development

Road transportation is the main sector of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in China,so it has become the key area to implement the “Double Carbon” strategy.European and American experience shows that the carbon emission peak of transportation sector is later than that of industrial,residential and commercial sectors,which marks the transportation industry with the highest difficulty in decarbonization.After sorting out the specific national,provincial and municipal plans for carbon reduction in road transportation,it is clear that the policies focus on promoting transportation structure adjustment,promoting equipment upgrading,promoting clean energy,promoting scientific and technological innovation,improving the monitoring system and other major initiatives.

2.2.1 Adjusting transportation structure

The key point of this policy is to promote the rational division and effective connection of different transportation modes by vigorously developing intermodal transportation,and reducing the no-load rate and unreasonable passenger and freight turnover.Policy priorities include giving full play to the low carbon advantages of railways and waterways,improving backbone channels and collection and distribution systems,and promoting the extension of railway stations to key ports,hub airports,industrial clusters,and major bulk material production areas;innovating intermodal transportation organization,vigorously developing domestic trade intermodal transportation and intensive distribution,and promoting the development of cold chain,dangerous chemicals,domestic mail express and other specialized freight transportation;accelerating the transfer of bulk goods and medium and long distance goods from road transportation to railway and waterway transportation,the proportion to railway transportation of coal and coke should strive to reach 90% in the main coal producing areas of Shanxi,Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia(with the transportation distance of more than 500 kilometers);promoting the adjustment of transportation structure in key regions,and bulk goods transportation strive to reach 80% by railway,waterway,closed belt corridor and new energy vehicles of major coastal ports such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding regions,the Yangtze River Delta,the Greater Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area;promoting the green travel system,and building a public transportation travel system with urban rail transit and bus rapid transit system as the backbone and conventional bus as the main body.

2.2.2 Upgrading facilities and equipment

The key point of this policy is to promote green,lightweight and environment-friendly transportation equipment and complete sets of technical equipment,to accelerate the elimination of high pollution and low-efficiency transportation equipment,and reduce the carbon emission intensity of road transportation vehicles.Policy priorities include controlling diesel truck pollution,accelerating the promotion and application of operating vehicles with the newest emission standards;establishing the closed-loop management mechanism of vehicle emissions,and accelerating the kickout of old vehicles with high energy consumption and high emissions;promoting the standardization of transportation equipment,promoting the standardized facilities and equipment for cross mode rapid transshipment,reducing the proportion of empty container transshipment,and improving the efficiency of loading,unloading and transshipment;improving the reuse and recycling level of resource,promoting the recycling and comprehensive utilization of construction materials and waste materials,and promoting the greening and reduction of express packaging.

2.2.3.Promoting clean energy

The key point of this policy is to reduce the proportion of fossil fuel in energy consumption gradually by expanding the application of new energy and clean energy in the field of transportation.Policy priorities include: vigorously promoting new energy vehicles,promoting the electrification of urban public service vehicles,and promoting electric power,hydrogen fuel,and liquefied natural gas-powered heavy trucks;deploying photovoltaic power generation and energy storage facilities reasonably in transportation hub stations and along the highway,and taking specific measures such as charging piles,supporting power grids,filling (gas)stations,hydrogen refueling stations and other infrastructure construction orderly.

2.2.4.Promoting scientific and technological innovation

The key point of this policy is to clarify the mechanism of highway transportation and energy conservation and emission reduction,breaking through the key technologies of green and low-carbon transportation,and taping the greater potential of energy conservation and emission reduction through technological innovation,promotion and application.Policy priorities include deepening basic theoretical research on comprehensive prevention and control of traffic pollution,developing new technologies such as monitoring and supervision of traffic energy consumption and pollution emissions;accelerating the promotion and application of key technologies for energy conservation and environmental protection,and strengthening the research and development of new energy transportation equipment,facilities and equipment,hydrogen fuel-powered vehicles,green building materials and processes and other new equipment;improving the system of green transportation standards and specifications,and strengthening the formulation and revision of standards and specifications,such as access standards for energy conservation and carbon reduction,green operation specifications,and pollution emission limit standards.

2.2.5.Improving the monitoring system

The key point of this policy is to improve the carbon emission monitoring system and control policy,to make up for the gaps in the field of carbon emission measurement,and form a closed loop of carbon emission management in road transportation.Policy priorities include strengthening the basic carbon emission statistics and accounting,studying and formulating carbon emission statistics methods and accounting rules in the field of transportation;strengthening the incentive and restraint mechanism for green and lowcarbon transportation,and improving new governance measures such as credit transportation,carbon credits,energy contract management,carbon emissions verification,and green finance by category;using online monitoring system and big data technology to establish transportation carbon emission monitoring platform system;promoting the construction of near-zero carbon transportation demonstration areas and other specific measures.

3.Countermeasures for China's Road Transportation Carbon Reduction

Learning lessons from the typical practices and development experience at home and abroad,it is suggested that top-level scheme design and work measures could be implemented from three major areas of strategical carbon reduction initiative,technical carbon reduction initiative and management carbon reduction initiative,so as to achieve “carbon emission peak” and“carbon emission neutral” in ChinaIs road transportation as soon as possible.

3.1 Implement strategic carbon reduction initiative

The strategic carbon reduction initiative mainly aims at the top-level strategy of road transportation carbon reduction,and proposes the overall strategic layout,policy system and standard planning.The specific measures mainly include: formulating the measurement methods and standard specifications of road transportation carbon emissions,forming a clear and transparent emission data and indicator system,and defining the total amount and current composition of road transportation carbon emissions in the benchmark scenario and year;developing“The 2030·2060 Action Roadmap for Road Transportation Industry”,which focuses on carbon intensity control and supplemented by carbon emission total amount control,defined the main areas,ways to achieve and phased objectives of road transportation carbon reduction,and further consolidated consensus and joint efforts on carbon reduction;promoting the transformation of transportation mode to railway and inland river,improving the operational efficiency of multimodal transportation through facilities specialization,equipment modularization,service facilitation,data standardization,etc.,to realize the transfer of road transportation to a cleaner transportation mode;deepening experience exchanges with EU countries in the field of transportation carbon reduction,and deepening cooperation in transportation carbon emission pricing and trading systems,carbon emission standards mutual recognition and data sharing,cross-border infrastructure connectivity,joint construction of zero carbon airports and seaports,and clean energy regional alliances.

3.2 Implement technical carbon reduction initiative

The technical carbon reduction initiative mainly aims at technical progress and scientific and technological innovation,and proposes new technologies,methods and models for road transportation carbon emission reduction.The specific measures mainly include: establishing statistical monitoring platform for road transportation carbon emissions;using Big Data,the Internet of Things,Blockchain and other digital technologies to achieve refined management of carbon emissions by means of enterprises and regions;increasing investment in clean energy,improving the construction of clean energy infrastructure in important transportation corridors and nodes,and accelerating the promotion of new energy vehicles such as electric vehicles,fuel cell vehicles,hydrogen vehicles;vigorously exploring carbon reduction space of new transportation technologies,such as automatic driving,formation driving,photovoltaic pavement,electrified roads,underground logistics,and travel as a service (MaaS).For example,truck formation driving can reduce carbon emissions by about 10%～15%.

3.3 Implement managerial carbon reduction initiative

Managerial carbon reduction initiative mainly aims to improve the management system and governance capacity,by proposing a reward and punishment mechanism system for road transportation reduction.The specific measures mainly include: establishing a low-carbon traffic certification system,improving relevant standards and certification processes;implementing the “one ballot veto for high carbon emissions” mechanism,only transportation enterprises that have passed the low-carbon certification can apply for the relevant preferential policies of the transportation sector;innovating the green transportation financing system,and increasing investment in green transportation infrastructure by issuing green transportation bonds,reducing the capital of green transportation projects,and extending the service life of operating projects;carrying out zero carbon transportation capacity building,organizing large transportation and logistics enterprises to form a zero carbon alliance,launching carbon reduction initiatives,and widely carrying out training,technical exchanges,concept promotion and other capacity building work;promoting the transportation carbon emission trading system,implementing carbon emission pricing,emission charging,carbon reduction subsidies and other measures in accordance with the principle of “polluter pays”,establishing zero emission regions,and improving the transportation carbon emission trading market.