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ESG Economist - A losing battle to meet car emission reduction goals

According to Eurostat, the EU emitted 2,857 Megaton of CO2 in 2022 and the transport sector accounted for 28% of that total or 794 Megaton and cars accounted for 447 Megaton (Mt) or 56% of transport representing 16% of all EU27 CO2 emissions. EU27 CO2-emissions were down by 28% at the end of 2022 compared to their 1990 levels. However, this downward trend in emissions is not visible in emissions from transport, which are 20% higher including a 17% increase from cars compared to 1990 levels. On a country level, emission trends differ significantly. CO2 emissions by cars have substantially increased in Spain (+78%) and Italy (+15%), while they have considerably decreased in Germany (-22%) and the Netherlands (-13%). For the Netherlands emission data are already published for 2023. Unfortunately, the downward trend did not continue in 2023. Indeed, according to the CBS data emissions from cars in the Netherlands increased again in 2023. Taken all together the emission trend in cars for the EU is not moving in the right direction. In this report we try to answer the following questions. How many cars are there on the road, what kind of car is it (battery electric, petrol, diesel etc) and what is the CO2 emission intensity of the fleet? What is the current policy and projected emissions path for the EU? What is the EC proposal for period after 2030? What are the policies for Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands? Finally are we able to reach the emission reduction targets?

Georgette Boele22/10/2024

Flagship Publications

Sustainability

ESG Strategist - How exposed are companies and banks to biodiversity risks?

Biodiversity stands for biological diversity. The loss of biodiversity translates into the loss of services provided by ecosystems to the real economy. There are two types of risks associated with biodiversity: physical and transitions risks. Physical risks stem from the loss of biodiversity (for instance, disappearance of animal pollinators, like bees), and transition risks stem from regulations/policies introduced by regulators to mitigate biodiversity loss (such as the introduction of a tax on fertilizers or the implementation of Natura 2000). Physical risks are captured by how much a sector depends on biodiversity (e.g. agriculture depends a lot on animal pollinators, like bees). And transition risks are captured by how much a sector impacts biodiversity (i.e. the more damage a firm causes, the more likely it is to be hit by policies acting against it). The ENCORE database provides qualitative assessments for each sector and sub-sector on their exposure to biodiversity risks and we use these to calculate quantitative biodiversity sector exposure scores. As per existing regulation, banks are required to report their loan book exposure per sector, according to the NACE categorisation. Hence, by combining banks’ loan book exposure per sector and sector scores on biodiversity dependence and impact, we were able to calculate individual banks’ exposure to biodiversity loss risks. Furthermore, we used Natural Language Processing to assess a bank’s awareness of its balance sheet exposure to biodiversity risks.

Marta Teixeira31/10/2023

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