Road vehicles are responsible for 15% of global energy-related emissions and are a crucial piece of the decarbonisation puzzle. You would expect them to be front and centre of the COP U.N. climate conference process.
That has been the case in the past – COP26 created a goal for all light-duty vehicles to be zero emission by 2040 (2035 in leading markets), while at COP28, the ZEV Transition Roadmap set out how wealthy governments would help boost support for EVs in developing economies to make them the “most affordable, accessible, and attractive option” everywhere by 2030.
Mike Helmsley, deputy director of the Energy Transitions Commission, points out that “implicit in COP28’s pledges to triple renewables capacity and double energy efficiency rates was an increase in EV numbers and a phase-out of fossil fuels”.
Yet Carbon Brief’s exhaustive round-up of key outcomes from COP29, opens new tab contained not a single mention of transport or electric vehicles.
“COP29 did not send a strong signal on the imperative of rapidly reducing transport’s emissions,” says Maruxa Cardama, secretary-general of the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLOCAT).
Vicky Sins, decarbonisation and energy transformation lead at the World Benchmarking Alliance, agrees that initiatives towards phasing out fossil fuels in transport have “been completely absent this year (at COP29). There has even been some political back-pedalling.”
This is a problem because although transport currently receives around 29% of climate finance, it faces the largest investment gap of any sector, according to SLOCAT. Around $2.7 trillion needs to be spent on clean transport solutions by 2050, seven times current levels.
The electrification of transport is vital, Sins adds, because “automotive is one sector that has the technology available and is able to transition – but it is not doing it. If automotive doesn’t make the change, the onus will fall on other sectors where the technology is not yet available. But a lot of lobbying is holding things back.”
New research, from the World Benchmarking Alliance shows that most global car manufacturers are not committed to investing in electrification and low-carbon business models, despite having the technological advances and political support on their side .
he research assessed 30 companies, which between them produce eight out of every 10 cars sold globally, and found that they are still tied to soon-to-be outdated business models, with only 17% of revenue attributable to low-carbon sales.
Not a single legacy manufacturer is committed to phasing out fossil fuels by 2035 and only six (Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Stellantis, General Motors and Ford) have pledged full electrification in specific markets. Only 23% of companies have a clear pledge to increase future expenditure on low-carbon technology.
The need for urgent action is not just about cutting emissions – the sector also needs to ensure a just transition for its workforce, which is facing considerable upheaval as internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are replaced by EVs.
Yet Cardama says: “The just transition discussion was deferred to Bonn sessions in June 2025, postponing essential steps to support workers and communities.”
Ben Nelmes, CEO of clean transport think tank New AutoMotive, believes that there has been a gradual shift away from an EV focus in recent COPs “which have focused much more on the production side of oil rather than the demand side, which is where EVs come into it.”
In part this is because EV sales have been rising rapidly around the world and there was a feeling that “the transition was starting to look very well established and rapid – but it remains very much dependent on the ambitions of governments and regulations around vehicle emissions and standards,” he adds.
There are fears that governments are reducing their commitments. When Ford launched its first e-drive transmission system produced at its Halewood plant in north-west England earlier this month, Lisa Brankin, managing director, UK and Ireland for Ford, told Reuters Events Sustainable Business that if the UK government wants the industry to transition to zero emissions new cars by 2035, it needs to incentivise consumers to buy them.
“What manufacturers want is a market that’s predictable and stable. But the market we are in is not very predictable and not very stable. The government’s trajectory for switching to EVs is a straight line, but most transitions are not linear,” she said.
“Transport is a big part of the government’s target and we have to make the switch to EVs, but customers don’t want them,” she said. “We need to accelerate the transition, which is why Ford and the industry want to see government-backed incentives.”
Still, COP29 did produce some positive news further up the EV and wider electricity value chain, with major commitments on grids and green corridors, as well as energy storage.
This is timely, says Anil Achyuta, managing director of TDK Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Japanese electrical and power conglomerate TDK. “There are two strains on the grid – the electrification of everything, including the automotive sector, and data centres.
“Grids are currently being addressed in a piecemeal fashion. There’s lots of innovation around transmission but it’s an infrastructure play and that’s usually driven by governments. And we need to see a tremendous amount of battery deployment as well.”
COP29’s
Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge, committed to deploy 1,500 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage in the power sector globally by 2030, more than six times 2022’s capacity, and to add or refurbish 25 million kilometre of grids by 2030, and an additional 65 million kilometres by 2040. The pledge was signed by 58 countries, from Albania to Venezuela, and included many EU countries, the UK, the U.S. and Brazil.
The Utilities for Net Zero Alliance (UNEZA) of 45 utilities and power sector suppliers, which formed at COP28 in 2023, said it would go further, adding or refurbishing 80 million kilometres of grids by 2040.
“Utilities have never previously been organised to collaborate, because traditionally they have a national mandate. But utilities will be at the forefront of the energy transition,” says Zafar Samadov, programme officer, partnerships at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which is advising UNEZA. “The alliance is looking to identify grid bottlenecks and overcome them.”
The sector suffers from a lack of policy standardisation across borders – there is no clear definition of what a green grid is, for example – and there are also supply chain challenges, including shortages of materials such as cables and transformers, as well as a skills deficit. “If the alliance can send a collective demand signal by saying how much they want to spend every year to expand capacity, that will help to develop the supply chain,” he adds.COP29 also saw the launch of a Green Energy Zones and Corridors Pledge, which aims to establish regional and international cooperation on renewable energy deployment and regional power transition infrastructure.
Green corridors make it easier to generate clean energy where renewable energy sources are abundant and power production is cheap, and transport it to where it is needed. They can help to smooth out the challenges of having transmission lines crossing a host of different jurisdictions, all with different regulations, for example.
This should help to redirect capital to areas where it is most needed. Rana Adib, executive director at renewable energy policy network REN21, says that “grid investment globally has increased but only 5% of it has gone to developing and emerging countries. And only 18% of renewable energy investment goes to developing and emerging economies, but two thirds of the population live there. That’s extremely concerning.
“There’s a lot of positive mobility around the role of energy efficiency and renewables in adaptation as well as mitigation. They improve the resilience of the energy system. But to increase renewable capacity, it’s not enough to just look at generating capacity. You have to look at the enabling infrastructure as well,” she adds.
Cardama of SLOCAT is optimistic that transport will return to centre stage next year at COP30. Host Brazil is expected to be a more engaged COP presidency than Azerbaijan, and COP30 takes place on the eve of the start of the U.N. Decade of Sustainable Transport, set to launch in January 2026.
- Reuters
