Decarbonizing Logistics

Professor McKinnon is making again a ground-breaking contribution. The greenhouse gas footprint of logistics is large. Reducing it relies on several mechanisms, because logistics involves many activities and participants. This book disentangles this complexity and proposes a clear framework for reduction. It identifies interventions by shippers, service providers or the public sector. The book lays the foundations of initiatives to come. It should appeal to a wide range of policymakers, academics and practitioners.

The UK's rising transport emissions are an indicator of the importance and timeliness of this book. The clear analytical approach, using the latest models - whilst avoiding complex language and mathematics - provides practical, evidence-based advice for a wide range of users, including logistics companies, regulators, politicians, policy makers and researchers.

Continued advances in logistics have enabled ever more globalized production of goods and services, bringing higher incomes, new jobs and more consumer choice in developed and developing countries alike. This progress has come at a price: the CO2 emissions associated with moving the raw materials, inputs and consumer goods are causing climate change with detrimental effects for the same populations that benefit from the growing trade. Alan McKinnon's book could not come at a more timely moment. We need to decarbonize logistics if we want to ensure that in the long term its negative impacts don't outweigh its contribution to global wellbeing. The book's analysis, combined with concrete policy recommendations to reduce the carbon intensity of logistics, provide invaluable tools for national policy makers and the international community.

This book is a long-overdue and comprehensive analysis that goes far beyond explaining why we need to decarbonise logistics - a sector that is expected to triple in volume by 2050. It synthesises a huge and highly diverse literature and shows that there is no shortage of strategies and carbon-reducing initiatives. Policy-makers and business leaders, committed to bringing emissions down to levels consistent with the COP21 Paris Climate Change Agreement will find a wealth of technical information and practical examples to help then update regulation and design programs and action plans.

The timing of releasing this book on the market is impeccable - with many governments currently grappling with how best to reduce their transport-related greenhouse gas emissions based on their nationally determined contributions committed under the Paris Climate Agreement, and the International Maritime Organisation recently agreeing to reduce global shipping-related greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050. The book is extremely well compiled, building on many years of practically orientated research experience by the author on this topic. It is truly international in its presentation. I would highly recommend the book for transport policy makers, logistics firms, shipping companies, local government representatives, vehicle manufacturers, internet retail businesses, and IT specialists working in this arena.