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Our Work

Transportation Decarbonization

We need a fully decarbonized global transportation sector by midcentury.

Great progress has been made in battery-based electrification, but certain vehicles – including heavy-duty vehicles like long-haul trucks, transoceanic marine vessels, and aircraft – will be difficult or impossible to power with batteries and will require the use of low- and zero-carbon fuels like hydrogen and ammonia to decarbonize.

Marine shipping facility

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Our goal

Catalyze actions where they are most needed to get the global transportation sector on track to zero emissions by midcentury.

We focus on both the demand and the supply side of the sector, advancing incentives and performance standards to decarbonize land, marine and air transport, and fueling systems. Our priority is to establish and accelerate growth in these still-incipient low- and zero-carbon transportation technology and fuel markets to ensure that each is ready to scale up within the decade and fully decarbonize by midcentury. 

Learn more about zero-carbon fuels.

Our impact in
transportation decarbonization

The Problem

  • The global transportation sector accounts for roughly 15 to 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions and is a leading source of health-damaging air pollution around the world.
  • Demand for transportation services is continuing to rise.
  • Between one-quarter and one-half of the transportation sector’s greenhouse gas pollution comes from vehicles that will be difficult or impossible to power with batteries, particularly heavy-duty vehicles like long-haul trucks, transoceanic marine vessels, and aircraft.

Our Approach

  • As electrification scales up, particularly for passenger vehicles, we are focused on the segments of the transportation sector that will be particularly difficult to electrify—aviation, marine shipping, and long-haul trucking.
  • Our near-term priority is to establish and accelerate growth in these still-incipient zero-carbon fuel transportation markets to ensure that each is ready to scale up within the decade.
  • Our initial focus is the transportation sector in the U.S. and EU, where policies under consideration or recently passed create critical opportunities to jumpstart zero-carbon fuel markets, and engagement with key international agencies such as the International Maritime Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization.
  • We are also expanding our work to emerging economies, where our analysis indicates that additional policy and technology options are needed in many countries to significantly reduce emissions from the transportation sector prior to the build-out of robust, reliable, and low-carbon-intensity electric grids.

Key Strategies and Activities

  • Complete technology and market analyses to identify innovation needs and market barriers for each sector.
  • Engage in stakeholder engagement and collaboration to validate market needs and barriers, demonstrate low/zero-emission vehicles, and stimulate zero-carbon fuel markets.
  • Undertake legal analysis, policy advocacy, and commercial sector advocacy to drive:
    • Innovation support and investment from both the public and private sector
    • Early adoption incentives for zero-carbon fuels and vehicles from both the public and private sector
    • Performance-based carbon-intensity standards to drive early deployment of climate-compatible fuels and zero-emission vehicles

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Meet our staff members working in transportation decarbonization.

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