Transport

Nowadays, transport contributes to 23% of global energy related GHG emissions.

Sept 30th, 2023

In the ecoinvent database, the transport sector comprises over 600 datasets, covering the production, maintenance, and operation of transportation vehicles, the necessary infrastructure, and the end-of-life treatment. The sector also includes data for the modeling of refrigerated transport.

Nowadays, transport contributes to 23% of global energy-related GHG emissions. While transport emissions have more than doubled in the past fifty years, 80% of this increase is attributable to road transport. As reported in the IPCC Climate Change Mitigation Assessment (2018), to reduce emissions from this sector, it is key to see its decoupling from economic growth rates.

Sector Overview

The transport sector in the ecoinvent database comprises over 600 datasets, covering the production, maintenance, and operation of transportation vehicles, the necessary infrastructure, and the end-of-life treatment. The datasets included cover: road, rail, water, air, and pipeline transport. Each transport mode is split into different technologies based on relevant criteria such as vehicle size, fuel, type of transport goods, etc. Data on vehicles equipped for refrigerated transport are also available.

The geographies covered are Global (GLO), Europe (RER), and selected European countries, United States (US), China (CN), South Africa (ZA), India (IN), and Brazil (BR).

Sector Highlights

Freight Transport

The ecoinvent database includes datasets on freight transport, which may model freight transport by road, rail, inland waterways, sea, air as well as pipeline. Each of these modes are represented by datasets on different technologies. Road transport is covered by datasets specific to vehicle type (e.g., light commercial vehicle, lorry, tractor), vehicle size, and emission class. Datasets on rail transport are categorized by fuel (e.g., electric and diesel). Inland waterways, sea, air, and pipeline transport are categorized based on the type of transport product (e.g., bulk, or container ship). Data on vehicles that allow transportation of refrigerated products are also available across all modes.

The functional unit used to represent freight transport in the ecoinvent database is tonne-kilometre (metric ton*km), which represents the transport of one tonne of goods over one kilometre. Data on transport are calculated for an average load factor and include empty return trips.

Passenger Transport

The ecoinvent database includes data on passenger transport by road, rail, and air. For each of these modes the database offers datasets covering different technologies. Specifically, road transport covered by datasets on different types of vehicles (e.g. scooter, coach, and tram). Even more, information on road transport by car in the database include datasets to differentiate between size, fuel, and emission class of the vehicles. At the same time, datasets covering rail transport are distinguished by their geographical operation (e.g., urban, rural, long-distance).

For passenger transport datasets, the ecoinvent database uses either the person kilometer (person*km) unit, representing the transport of one passenger over one kilometer, or the kilometer (km) unit, representing the transport of an average number of passengers over one kilometer.

Infrastructure Mobile and Immobile

The ecoinvent database offers data on vehicle production, maintenance, and end-of life. Information on the construction, maintenance, and decommissioning of relevant immobile infrastructure (e.g., road, railway track, port, airport) is also offered.

Data Providers

ecoinvent data originates from different sources. Notable providers of the data included in the Transport sector include (but are not limited to):

Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Quantis, Switzerland
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA)

Editors

Jens Borken-Kleefeld (Main Editor), IIASA, Austria
Andrew Simons (Co-Editor), 3sp, Switzerland
Andrea Delduce (Co-Editor), Quantis, Switzerland
Christian Bauer (Co-Editor), PSI, Switzerland

Relevant Sources

While the database contains all needed information to understand the modeling and calculations behind its contents, the reports below provide further information for enhanced understanding of the activities within the sector.

Del Duce, A., Gauch, M., Althaus, H., (2014) Electric passenger car transport and passenger car life cycle inventories in ecoinvent version 3. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.  Full article in IJLCA

Simons, A., (2013) Road transport: new life cycle inventories for fossil-fuelled passenger cars and non-exhaust emissions in ecoinvent v3. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. Full article in IJLCA

Notten P.J., Althaus H-J. and Burke M., (2018). Life cycle inventories of global air freight – Global. ecoinvent Association, Zürich, Switzerland. Accessible at SRI project results (registration required).

Notten P.J., Althaus H-J., Jayaram N. and Burke M., (2018). Life Cycle Inventories of Rail Freight – India and South Africa. ecoinvent Association, Zürich, Switzerland. Accessible at SRI project results (registration required).

Notten P.J., Althaus H-J., Jayaram N., Burke M. and Läderach A., (2018). Life Cycle Inventories of Road Freight – India and South Africa. ecoinvent Association, Zürich, Switzerland. Accessible at SRI project results (registration required).

Notten P.J., Althaus H-J., Burke M. and Läderach A., (2018). Life cycle inventories of global shipping – Global. ecoinvent Association, Zürich, Switzerland. Accessible at SRI project results (registration required).

Spielmann M., Dones R. and Bauer C., (2007). Life Cycle Inventories of Transport Services. Final report ecoinvent v2.0 No. 14. Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, Dübendorf, CH (available in the report section of ecoQuery v2).

Lévová, T., (2015). Freight transport with intermodal shipping containers and transport of goods in need of atmosphere control, ecoinvent database version 3.2, ecoinvent Centre, Zürich, Switzerland (available in the report section of ecoQuery)