Emissions of CO2 from road freight transport in London: Trends and policies for long run reductions

Freight transport has been receiving increasing attention in both literature and practice following the growing recognition of its importance in urban transport planning. This paper analyses historical and projected road freight CO2 emissions in the city of London and explores the potential mitigation effect of a set of freight transport policies and logistics solutions. Findings indicate a range of policies with potential to reduce emissions in the period up to 2050. However, this reduction would appear to only be capable of partly counterbalancing the projected increase in freight traffic. More profound behavioural measures therefore appear to be necessary for London’s CO2 emissions reduction targets to be met.