Stockholm (NordSIP) – The Transition Pathways Initiative (TPI) has released its 2020 report on the management quality and carbon performance of the Transport sector. The analysis covers 62 companies in the Autos, Airline, and International Shipping sectors. The report is motivated by the weight of CO2 emissions from transport sectors, which represents almost a fourth of energy-related C02 emissions worldwide.
According to the report, the average Management Quality score for companies in these sectors is still only 2.5. Only BMW can be described as a 4* level company. The majority of International Shipping companies (56.25%) are ranked as only Aware (Level 1). In contrast, 78.3% and 65.2% of auto manufacturers and airlines rank at Level 3 or above, respectively.
According to the TPI database, the transport sectors are less likely to report membership of trade associations that lobby for climate change reform than other industries. Responsibility for climate change policy is also less likely to sit at the board-level.
The TPI’s analysis for Carbon Performance shows that only 23% of companies have emissions reduction targets that will be aligned with keeping global temperature rises to 2°C or below by 2030. Only 18% of the companies have made commitments as far forward as 2050. The Airline sector is still the worst-performing of the transport sectors on Carbon Performance, with an over-reliance on off-setting, followed by the auto industry.
“There is a unique opportunity for industries to transform themselves as we look to build back better post‐COVID,” says Antonina Scheer, Researcher at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. “Unfortunately, our findings show that the transportation sector still has the brakes on in transitioning to a low‐carbon future, with only 18% of firms assessed in line with a path to keep global warming at 2°C or below in 2050. It is particularly alarming that some companies are backloading efforts to align with the Paris goals to 2050. The transportation sector needs to step on the accelerator in addressing Carbon Performance and Management Quality because we need improvements from this sector now, not in a few decades, to ensure a net‐zero future takes‐off.”
Image by Julius Silver from Pixabay
