Professor Alan McKinnon:

I have worked on decarbonisation logistics for about 15 years. I have witnessed a real step change in the level of corporate commitment to cutting emissions at a business level. That percolates down to their effort to decarbonise their logistics and supply chains as well.

I mentioned our recent survey, which was reflected in the responses we received from the companies. It must be remembered that a lot of logistics is outsourced. Therefore, the basic activity is performed either by big logistics companies like DHL or, in many cases, by small companies. The big manufacturers and retailers are, therefore, hoping that their logistics providers will decarbonise on their behalf. They are putting increased pressure on those companies to do so.

One of the problems with the freight sector, which applies in particular to road freight, is that it is a highly fragmented industry. Across Europe as a whole, there are over 500,000 small carriers. It is an intensely competitive industry. Many companies struggle to survive. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that they do not have the time, effort or resources to put into decarbonising their operations. We carried out another study recently on what needs to be done to motivate small carriers to cut their emissions.

One of the other positive things I would say that there is a close correlation between cutting carbon emissions and cutting costs in the logistics sector. There is a widespread feeling that we are still in what might be called the low-hanging fruit phase of freight decarbonisation. A lot of the initiatives that will save carbon will cut costs and often have a very short repayment time. Regrettably, harvesting all of that low-hanging fruit will not get us to our carbon reduction targets for 2035, 2050 and thereafter. It will, however, get companies started on the process of cutting their emissions.

My final point is that these are science-based targets. An increasing number of big companies are signing up for science-based targets, which means they are committing to absolute reductions in emissions, not just reductions on a carbon-intensity basis. That matters a lot in the logistics world because until recently almost all of the carbon reduction targets for logistics were carbon-intensity based. Now companies are looking at ways of getting the numbers right down to zero by 2040 or thereafter. They are some positive comments.