A cross-sector coalition of transport bodies is calling on state and Federal Governments to commit to bold reform on decarbonisation to meet national net zero emissions by 2050.
In an industry first, the Public Transport Association Australia New Zealand, (PTAANZ) the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) and Roads Australia (RA), with support from consultancy Arup, have joined forces to push for urgent, cross sector priority actions to accelerate decarbonisation.
The submission to the Federal Government’s Transport and Infrastructure Net ZeroConsultation Roadmap calls for “radical transformation over incremental change” to lay the path for a just, low-cost and sustainable transition in the transport sector.
“Collaboration and courage will be necessary to accomplish a sustainable, equitable and efficient transport system under net zero conditions,” the submission says.
It makes three key recommendations – each with specific short- and longer-term measures to achieve effective net zero pathways – which are focused on mode shift at unprecedented scale, ramping up the zero emissions vehicle transition, and
making whole of life carbon assessments central to decision making.
The group warns that zero-emission transition cannot be constrained to electric vehicles and, particularly for heavy transport fleets and long regional distances, Australia must do more to enable technologies such as low carbon liquid fuels and hydrogen fuel cells alongside battery electric vehicles.
The submission was informed by a National Decarbonising Transport Summit hosted by the group in Canberra on June 26. Over 40 Australian transport executives from government and the private sector came together to collectively identify priority decarbonisation actions for the sector to take forward. The full findings and recommendations from the Summit are available in this report.
PTAANZ Chief Executive Lauren Streifer said a credible decarbonisation plan must lead with mode shift to tackle both carbon and congestion.
“Sixty percent of transport emissions in Australia come from light vehicles including passenger cars, motorcycles and light commercial vehicles, so the fastest way to reduce carbon emissions from transport is enabling more people to walk or cycle, which creates no emissions, or take public transport, which is more energy efficient,” Streifer said.
“Governments must continue planning for mode shift alongside long-term land use and economic planning.”
“By working together to ensure more people use public and active transport more often, the community will benefit from the considerable economic, social and environmental outcomes this brings.”
ARA CEO Caroline Wilkie said the transport industry is united in achieving zero emissions as quickly as possible.
Wilkie said Australia must adopt whole of sector changes to maximise the use of sustainable transport modes and leverage new technologies.
“Mode shift is the most powerful lever available to reduce emissions and jumpstart the transport sector’s transition to net zero. We need to be relentless in our pursuit of greater use of public transport and sustainable freight modes. This will require government and industry to fundamentally transform how we plan, build and operate our transport networks,” Wilkie said.
“The shift to low and zero emissions technologies to power our operations will also be complex. Without immediate and collaborative action, we risk missing critical procurement and planning windows to phase out traditional transport fuels” Wilkie said.
RA Chief Executive Ehssan Veiszadeh said the submission also recommends developing a standardised embodied carbon measurement system for the transport sector, with agreed timeframes for carbon targets, carbon accounting and shared
carbon architecture.
“As a sector, we need to be able to assess and understand the whole-of-life carbon impacts of our transport infrastructure – from the manufacture of building materials through to the construction, operation and eventual decommissioning of an asset.
“With better tracking and visibility of the emissions embodied in the supply chain, we have an opportunity to build a consistent approach into procurement frameworks nationally to deliver more sustainable infrastructure.”
The submission includes the following key recommendations and actions:
A mode-shift first approach
• Governments and industry: Develop new modelling evidencing the wide economic, social and environmental benefits of mode shift.
• Governments: Continue planning for mode shift alongside long-term land use and economic planning.
• Governments, industry and academia: Share research to scale up impactful behavioural interventions.
• Governments: Adopt the ‘avoid/shift/improve’ hierarchy to identify and prioritise alternatives to carbon costly investment in business cases.
• Government: Investigate the benefits and impacts of consistent, equitable road and rail pricing.
Accelerate an equitable Zero Emission Vehicles and rollingstock transition
• Governments and industry: Adopt the emerging Australian fuel efficiency standards to provide certainty and unlock the zero emission vehicle supply chain, set pathways to refine the approach, and apply it to trucks, buses and trains.
• Governments: Continue planning for transport electrification alongside energy transition planning, to minimise lumpy demand that destabilises the grid.
• Governments and industry: Develop a shared, national vision for rollingstock decarbonisation to accelerate the transition from diesel-powered traction.
• Governments: Promote and expand on incentives to stimulate EV demand, with an emphasis on removing barriers for lower income people and businesses, and financial instruments to accelerate industry fleet shifts.
• Governments and industry: Ramp up the roll-out of enabling infrastructure (e.g. charging points and retrofits), regulation (e.g. building codes) and guidance to ensure a smooth transition for communities, industry and the grid.
Consistently and adequately assess whole of life carbon
• Federal Government: Develop a standardised embodied carbon measurement system, and drive alignment across states and territories.
• Governments’ transport sector: Set agreed expectations and timeframes for carbon targets, carbon accounting and shared carbon architecture.
• State and territory governments: Work with the national government and industry to develop principles and objectives to inform nationally consistent implementation of business cases piloting carbon accounting and targets, modelling and adapting successful international approaches.
• Governments: Develop and adopt nationally consistent procurement guidance, informed by leading global practice and focused on removing barriers to innovation and low carbon construction.
• Governments and industry: Develop and adopt performance-based, collaborative contract models to coordinate and prioritise low-carbon investments, and craft new risk-sharing frameworks to incentivise innovation and address existing barriers to industry participation.
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