Decarbonising the UK's Freight Transport

Completed

Energy Efficiency(Transport)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Economics and Econometrics)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Politics and International Studies)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Other Systems Analysis)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Policy and regulation)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Other sociological economical and environmental impact of energy)
Other (Energy technology information dissemination)

Dr T Smith
UCL Energy Institute
University College London

Standard

EPSRC

01 July 2019

01 March 2023

44 months

£865,735

Energy

London

Energy : Energy

Dr T Smith, UCL Energy Institute, University College London

Dr D Brett, Chemical Engineering, University College London
Professor D Cebon, Engineering, University of Cambridge
Professor WIF David, ISIS Pulsed Neutron & Muon Source, STFC (Science & Technology Facilities Council)
Dr P K Greening, Sch of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University
Professor D Hudson, Sch of Engineering, University of Southampton
Dr S Karamperidis, Plymouth Business School, University of Plymouth
Dr S Mander, Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester
Professor D Mangan, Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University
Dr AJ Murphy, School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University
Dr T Osman, Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, University of Strathclyde
Dr RJ Pawling, Mechanical Engineering, University College London
Dr M I Piecyk, Sch of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University
Dr N Rehmatulla, Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources, University College London
Dr P Shearing, Chemical Engineering, University College London
Dr I Viola, Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University

Project Contact, Cargill Plc (UK)
Project Contact, UK Chamber of Shipping
Project Contact, British Ports Association
Project Contact, Optrak Distribution Software Ltd
Project Contact, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden
Project Contact, Freight Transport Association
Project Contact, The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT)
Project Contact, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Project Contact, University of the South Pacific (USP), Fiji
Project Contact, Environmental Defense Fund Europe
Project Contact, Future Proof Shipping
Project Contact, Global Maritime Forum
Project Contact, University of Antwerp
Project Contact, Smart Green Shipping Alliance
Project Contact, International Windship Association
Project Contact, Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)
Project Contact, Argent Energy (UK) Limited
Project Contact, BMT Defence Services Ltd
Project Contact, Sustainable Shipping lnitiative (SSI)
Project Contact, Copenhagen Business School
Project Contact, Shell International Ltd
Project Contact, WEGEMT
Project Contact, Department for Transport
Project Contact, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany
Project Contact, ImarEST
Project Contact, Maritime Strategies International
Project Contact, Lloyd's Register EMEA
Project Contact, Norsepower Oy Ltd

Like energy and automotive before it, UK freight transport is now on the cusp of a socio-technical transition away from fossil fuel dependency. This transition will require major investment to fleet and infrastructure, cause disruption to assets and business models, and will trigger significant reconfiguration. Whilst the scaling up of fossil phase-out is most likely to occur from the 2030s onwards, the next 10 years of investments are critical to enabling the transition, and to mitigating transition risks to the "hard to abate" freight sectors, and by association UK trade.Our concept to address this challenge is for a Network of broad but interconnected academic excellence integrated with key and leading stakeholders in freight decarbonisation, that collaboratively develops and applies knowledge and understanding of rapid freight decarbonisation. We will use this Network to collect and distil current knowledge, as well as to identify and de-risk the key remaining research challenges that can unleash significant freight-decarbonisation targeted investment and guide enabling policy.This Network connects five freight transport investments made by the EPSRC with a track record of a whole systems approach to decarbonisation of UK freight flows (international and national), and of closely integrating and embedding research with industry and policy makers alike.The Network's efforts will be guided by a number of features of UK freight transport including: (i) significant fixed infrastructure with long timescales for investment (ii) lack of consensus on the specific technological solutions for each mode (iii) a complex combination of national and international transport systems (iv) besides the road and rail network, a limited scope for public sector investment (v) Complex governance involving a mix of UK, EU and international (UN) regulation.The Network will align and integrate directly with UK government and existing initiatives including (i) Industrial strategy (ii) Clean Growth Strategy (iii) Road to zero (iv) Clean Maritime Council (v) UN agency fora (vi) World Bank's Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (vii) ongoing work on aligning investment to decarbonisation with: European Investment Bank, UK private sector institutions, IFC and IMF, and leading investment NGOs: 2 degrees investing, World Economic Forum, Global Maritime Forum, Global Shippers Forum, UK FTA.To achieve this Network's objective of unleashing significant investment for freight decarbonisation, it is organised into five multi-modal and cross-cutting thematic areas and executed through a three-step approach:Theme 1: Role of data and models for unlocking implementation decision makingTheme 2: Managing macroeconomic, policy and technology uncertainty, whilst mitigating climate risk in investment decisionsTheme 3: Fuel and propulsion technology pathwaysTheme 4: Aligning drivers for decarbonisation investment/policy with local (inc. air pollution), UK, EU and Global climate policy and integrating into private sector decision makingTheme 5. Coupling the evolution of logistics with decarbonizing freightStep 1: Refinement of current knowledge and perspectives into a focused set of research questions covering each of the five themesStep 2: Commissioning of a series (~13) small projects which can develop further understanding of these questions and the methods suitable for addressing them Step 3: Distillation of the Network's knowledge, in combination with the outputs of the small projects, to produce a strategy to drive freight decarbonisation investment, and an agenda and plan describing a series of further collaboration and funding activity that can sustain the Networ

11/10/21