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trends and future of sustainable development - TransEco

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ANALYSING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF ROAD FREIGHTTRANSPORT - COMBINING MULTIPLE SOURCES OFINFORMATIONMarkus Pöllänen <strong>and</strong> Heikki LiimatainenTampere University <strong>of</strong> Technology, Finl<strong>and</strong>ABSTRACT – Sustainability in general <strong>and</strong> also in the context <strong>of</strong> transport has many dimensions.Here we concentrate on freight transport <strong>and</strong> especially on greenhouse gases (GHG). Reducing GHG<strong>and</strong> above all CO 2 emissions has become a key objective as the global attention has focused on climatechange. In European projections, transport has been recognised as a sector which is growing in terms<strong>of</strong> CO 2 emissions unlike other sectors. Particularly in road freight transport there are currently noviable alternatives to fossil fuels in large extent. Also the dem<strong>and</strong> for transport is expected to growsubstantially.A widely accepted framework has been constructed for analysing energy efficiency <strong>and</strong> CO 2emissions in road freight transport. This framework links the economic activity <strong>and</strong> CO 2 emissions inorder to analyse different factors <strong>and</strong> for instance to compare different countries with each other or tocompare the <strong>development</strong> over time. In this paper we discuss this framework from the perspective <strong>of</strong>combining data from literature review, national statistics, web-based survey for hauliers, Delphisurvey, <strong>and</strong> workshops in order to make sensible forecasts for the next decades considering the<strong>development</strong> <strong>of</strong> sustainability <strong>and</strong> specially CO 2 emissions <strong>of</strong> road freight transport.1. IntroductionThere is a growing interest to develop road freight transport into a more <strong>sustainable</strong> direction. As thecarbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions are strived to be decreased in every sector <strong>of</strong> our society, also roadfreight transport is facing the challenge. The challenge is even greater in transport sector than in othersectors. Transport is the only sector with growing greenhouse gas emissions in Europe (Eurostat 2011).The growth has been due to growing transport activity <strong>and</strong> the growth is estimated to continue(SEC/2011/0358). Furthermore, transport is, <strong>and</strong> will continue to be, almost entirely dependent on oil(COM/2011/0144). In Chapter 2 we will discuss sustainability in the context <strong>of</strong> road freight transport.In this paper we will look at the sustainability <strong>of</strong> road freight transport especially through theframework, which is introduced in Chapter 3. The framework incorporates different factors affecting theCO 2 emissions <strong>of</strong> road freight transport. Our main interest is to analyse the different types <strong>of</strong> methods436

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