Assessing the Value of Information Technology for the Decarbonization of Freight Transport

Abstract

In its first part, the paper gives a summary of the levels of emissions resulting from each mode of transport by use of statistics at the European and global levels. It also summarizes the main measures and policies that have been put forward for the reduction of freight transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To facilitate the subsequent analyses, these measures and policies are classified into four categories, i.e., affecting the “demand” for freight transport services, shifting freight to less or no carbon-intensive modes, improving the energy efficiency of existing freight vehicles, and transitioning to “clean” fuels including electricity and hydrogen. For each of these categories, their current or potential use of information technology (IT) applications is presented, and key examples of such applications are mentioned. In the final part, a multicriteria analysis is performed with the help of two expert panels which are asked to assess, on a 5-level Likert-type scale, the extent of IT use in each of the four categories. The results show an important or very important contribution of IT in all categories except “improving the energy efficiency of current vehicles”. The highest contribution (with scores higher than 4) appears to be in the category “shifting freight to less carbon-intensive modes”.