Decarbonising road transport: light-duty vehicles

The broad strokes of a Paris Agreement-aligned roadmap are clear: we need to roughly halve emissions by 2030, achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 and net zero greenhouse gas emissions soon after. However, the details at the national and sectoral level are often still unclear.

In this report, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) provides updated 1.5ºC compatible benchmarks for the transport sector, building on the CAT’s previous 2020 benchmark report (Climate Action Tracker, 2020a), for the world as a whole and for seven individual countries; the US, EU, China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia.

The CAT finds that, to align with 1.5ºC, the world should reach 100% EV sales by 2035

• Globally, electric vehicles should achieve 75-95% of the light-duty vehicle market by 2030 and 97-100% by 2035.
• Developed countries and China should take the lead, phasing out the sale of internal combustion vehicles as early as 2030.
• While the pace of action could be slower in developing countries than in wealthier nations, developing countries should still aim to achieve 100% EV sales share by 2040 at the latest.

Even if countries were to achieve 100% EV sales as soon as possible, it will not be enough to make the necessary emissions reductions without also taking aggressive measures to scrap or retire existing fossil fuel cars — or take them off the roads. In some countries, the annual retirement rate of ICE vehicles would need to roughly increase by a factor of seven in 2040 compared to historical retirement rates.

To read the full report, including full details on all the benchmarks globally and for the seven countries, click the button below.

download the report

You can also view the equivalent report for the power sector and what is required for the world and 16 countries to decarbonise the power sector in-line with meeting the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C warming limit, as well as our investigation into the national circumstances and priority actions for decarbonising steel.

Power sector 1.5°C benchmarks

Decarbonising steel