In cooperation with the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), the Executive Board of netER hosted a symposium entitled ‘Energy transition in heavy goods transport’.

Visions of how the energy transition for heavy goods transport can be advanced were discussed together. Over the two days of the symposium, 15 internationally recognised experts discussed the background and visions for the greening of European heavy goods transport on a scientific basis with around 250 participants.

Here is a brief summary of the second netER symposium.

The symposium revealed that the existing transformation subsidies are not suitable for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. This is because the legal regulations are only based on the consideration of subsystems. For example, electric cars are categorised as zero-emission vehicles and subsidised accordingly simply because they have no exhaust. In reality, however, electric cars cause very high emissions, especially during electricity generation and vehicle production. Only the sum of all emissions counts for climate protection. To this end, scientists have developed the methodology of life cycle analysis (LCA), which also takes into account the areas upstream and downstream of vehicle use, such as production and scrapping as well as the production of energy sources (fuels or electricity). A technically correct LCA shows no climate benefit of the BEV. This means that, for reasons other than climate protection, the legal regulations are aimed at promoting a certain type of drive and forcing others out of the market. This inevitably leads to a misallocation of resources. The subsidies for electric mobility are used inefficiently and are de facto lost for climate protection.

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