In recognition of both the progress of climate science and the need to manage the risks faced by future generations, the majority of the world's governments are implementing programs for the long term reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, the Australian government has committed to an 80 per cent reduction on the 2000 levels of emissions for the Australian economy by 2050.

As the second largest greenhouse gas emission contributing sector in the economy at 16% of national emissions, transport will need to make a significant contribution to the abatement target. The question then arises as to the potential greenhouse gas abatement options available to the sector.

The Australian transport industry, researchers and government have in many cases deep knowledge about the issues of environmental sustainability, and individual transport sector greenhouse gas abatement options. However, that knowledge is fragmented due to the diversity and complexity of transport.

There are existing studies of transport abatement options but they are limited to a narrow subset of the available options. As a consequence no single document is available to provide an overview of the options and potential for abatement in the transport sector. With this background the ARRB Group, BITRE and CSIRO formed the Australian Low Carbon Transport Forum (ALCTF) in July 2011 to bring together knowledge on the options for greenhouse gas abatement in transport and explore how deeply emissions could be cut in the sector.

• Greenhouse gas abatement potential of the Australian transport sector–Summary report
  
  alctf_summary_report.pdf
  (1.85 MB)

The Australian Low Carbon Transport Forum (ALCTF) was initiated by a project secretariat comprising ARRB Group, BITRE and CSIRO. It was organised to bring together knowledge on the options for greenhouse gas abatement in transport and explore how deeply emissions could be cut in the sector.

A report describing the main findings of the study has been published under the title Greenhouse gas abatement potential of the Australian transport sector: Summary report.

This current Technical Report is a companion document to the Summary Report, and aims to detail the methodology and results of the ALCTF process. That is, it describes how the estimated levels of abatement were calculated for each of the abatement options considered in the ALCFT workshops, and how the various abatement potentials were aggregated into an estimate for the maximal potential reduction.

• Greenhouse gas abatement potential of the Australian transport sector–Technical report
  
  alctf_technical_report.pdf
  (1.85 MB)