The Challenge

Achieving a sustainable “net-zero-emission freight transport economy” by 2050 requires collaborative and collective action now in order to successfully transform global mobility in a systemic manner over the next decade. The road freight sector’s emission trajectory is far from Paris-compatible, in spite of the positive technology momentum (e.g. batteries, e-highways, hydrogen, efficiency improvements). As a matter of fact, emissions keep increasing, and currently amount to more than 30% of total land transport emissions. Achieving the goals of the Paris agreement requires action now.

This Decarbonizing Road Freight Initiative will be hosted by the World Economic Forum as part of the high-profile, multi-year Mission Possible Platform portfolio of work.

The World Economic Forum will harness the truly unique access to global industry leaders, governments and senior leaders across many relevant stakeholder groups. This executive-level network provides a crucial advantage when working to ‘get things done’ at scale, and in the type of multi-stakeholder environment which global logistics value chains represent. It has a long-standing program on mobility, where it has built relationships with many of the relevant companies, political institutions in Brussels, Member States and other stakeholders including Civil Society/ NGOs, and think tanks relevant to the mobility transition.

Workstreams and Action Pathways

In order to drive decarbonization of trucking, the Decarbonizing Road Freight initiative envisages delivering impact via distinct and focused workstreams:

Workstream 1: Clear joint articulation for a target action program/roadmap from value-chain leaders on barriers to be removed.

• We will look for endorsements at CEO level for net-zero ambition and 2030 ambitious waypoints and detailed expressions on barriers on policy, finance schemes, technology acceleration frameworks


• The conclusions will be communicated in different formats, including a short roadmap and briefing document

Workstream 2: A set of derisking initiatives/pilots

• A set of (2-3) impactful derisking initiatives/pilots will be identified, scoped and modeled, and set up during the 1-year grant period


• Well-defined derisking initiatives incl. commitments from demand side actors with the appropriate financing will have significant impact, leveraging the Forum`s convening power across industries.

Workstream 3: Clean Trucking Transition finance framework

• Financing is clearly among the key barriers, particularly for the many smaller companies involved in the logistics value chain


• Developing financing pilots that demonstrate how these hurdles can be overcome