ZEV Transition Council - International Council on Clean Transportation

The Zero Emission Vehicles Transition Council is an international forum focused on enhancing political cooperation on the transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs).

The Issue

To keep the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach, we must rapidly reduce GHG emissions from transport.

Cars, vans, buses, and trucks account for 21% of global anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. Under currently adopted policies, fleetwide CO₂ emissions are projected to continue rising through 2050. Transitioning the global vehicle fleet to zero-emission vehicle technologies is crucial to decarbonizing road transport and meeting climate goals. Zero-emission vehicles can reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as 80% over the vehicle’s life cycle—that is, counting emissions produced at every stage, from extracting and processing raw materials, through manufacturing, charging, and eventual disposal.

There is no way to achieve this with conventional cars powered by internal combustion engines, even if we fuel them with biofuels, electrofuels, or natural gas, or make them hybrids. Zero-emission vehicles—primarily, battery-electric vehicles—are the only technology that can decarbonize road transport as quickly as we need at a feasible cost. The average car stays on the road 15 years or more. So we need almost all new car sales around the world to be zero-emission by 2035.

The ICCT serves as the ZEVTC Secretariat and performs technical research on behalf of the Co-Chairs and members. For more information, visit:

ZEVTC.org

Method

Convene

The ZEVTC brings together Ministers from governments that represent over 50% of the global car market. Council members have agreed to collectively address key challenges in the transition to ZEVs, enabling the transition to be faster, cheaper, and easier for all. The Council convenes on a regular basis to discuss how to accelerate the pace of the global transition to ZEVs, to reduce emissions and help the global economy meet our goals under the Paris Agreement.

Inform

Draw on expert technical input to understand the state of the ZEV transition and how best to accelerate it. Representative briefing topics include:

Quantifying life-cycle GHG emissions from potential technology pathways
Identifying effective policies to build and support ZEV markets
Tracking the pace of the transition, globally and in individual markets
Identifying opportunities and barriers for policy

Global ZEV Transition Roadmap

Initially launched at COP28, the Global ZEV Transition Roadmap presents the collective actions the ZEV Transition Council intends to undertake with wider international partners to accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).

The 2024 update provides progress-to-date among EMDEs and outlines plans to continue this strong momentum by implementing Roadmap activities via its newly launched international delivery framework. The Roadmap presents solutions to address six urgent strategic challenges that will help build year-on-year momentum and ensure real-world impact this decade.

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