In her inaugural speech as Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen announced the Green Deal for Europe. An essential requirement of the Green Deal is to reduce the CO2 emissions of the European Community by 2030 to a much greater extent than the current reduction target of -40% compared to 1990.

The transport sector is responsible for approximately 25% of the total CO2 emissions of the European Community and, contrary to the trend in total emissions over the last 30 years, it has not shown any reductions. The central instrument for CO2 reduction is the specification of CO2 fleet limits for new cars, which, for example, require a reduction of 37.5% for passenger cars by 2030 compared to 2020/2021. In order to achieve these targets, ambitious electrification in the coming years is already mandatory.

This conference discusses possible solution elements which, beyond meeting the fleet limits, will allow current climate targets to be achieved and, eventually, to achieve even more ambitious targets; and will show how identifying and tracking batteries can help capture and quantify greenhouse gas emissions so they can be measured and offset.

This conference was moderated by Philipp Ellett, Manager Climate Protection Policy at Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA), with the following presentations:

• How to Leave Behind Fossil Fuels focuses on future hydrogen technologies and synthetic liquid as well as gaseous derivates – so called drop-in E-Fuels for effective defossilization of vehicle stock as a complementary measure to ambitious electrification of suitable mobility sectors and use-cases. Presented by Björn Noack, Director, Systems Engineering Powertrain Functions Commercial Vehicle, Robert Bosch GmbH
• EU Taxonomy Regulation, your energy impact, and using technology for increased efficiency and accuracy of sustainability claims explains how Everledger is working with experts and peers to enable supply chain reporting of direct energy use, but also sharing the necessary information to report on the greenhouse gas emissions related to the product (i.e. incorporating data across the supply chain and lifespan of the product). The presentation includes early findings and opportunities on how you can support this collaborative effort to efficiently and accurately enable this reporting and progress for all supply chain actors.Presented by Carrie George, Vice President, Head of Sustainability Solutions, Everledger

Originally broadcast: 9 September 2020 at 15.00 BST