We Supported Lineas in Their Climate Journey

As Europe’s largest private rail freight, Lineas is aware that climate change is a global challenge of today that requires a rapid and adequate response. With the help of Climact, Lineas has developed an ambitious ESG strategy, including a climate plan in line with Science-Based Targets (SBT’s).

Carbon Footprint

To prepare the submission of science-based targets to the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) for validation, Climact first compiled the carbon footprint for Lineas for the base year of 2021, according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.  One of the main challenges we faced was considering all the different subsidiary entities spread across multiple European countries and accounting for every source of emissions falling within scopes 1, 2 and 3. In scope 1, the majority of emissions stem from the diesel train engines, directly resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels. For scope 2, emissions are primarily linked to the purchase of electricity for electric locomotives. As for scope 3, both diesel and electric engine contribute significantly due to subcontracted services.

In line with the requirements from SBTi, we calculated the complete scope 3 emissions, including the emissions caused by the fossil fuels transported by Lineas in the reporting year.

Science-Based Targets Initiative

Climact has compiled and submitted the validation file for Lineas’s climate targets to SBTi. It is based on the GHG Protocol – compliant carbon footprint inventory. As outcome of the validation process with SBTi, Lineas commits :

• To reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 42% by 2030 from a 2021 base year.¹
• To reduce absolute scope 3 GHG emissions from purchased goods and services, and fuel- and energy related activities 25% within the same timeframe.
• To reduce absolute scope 3 GHG emissions from the use of distributed but not sold fossil fuels 42% within the same timeframe.
• That 55% of its suppliers by emissions covering upstream transportation and distribution, will have science-based targets by 2026.

Rail freight transport companies face a triple challenge in terms of climate, which makes these ambitious targets especially inspiring:

1. On the one hand, they are expected to increase their volume of transported goods to contribute to decarbonizing goods transportation. In Belgium, according to CLIMACT’s transition model, this means an activity growth of 14% between 2022 and 2030 (and +52% by 2050) explained by a modal shift from road transport to other modes with lower climate impact. Rail freight transport would reach a modal share of 13% in 2030, 17% in 2050, compared to 11% today, according to our simulations (when excluding aviation and maritime). Such activity growth requires significant investments in rolling stock, infrastructure, and human resources in a challenging business environment.
2. Railway operators are also expected to reduce their own impact on climate despite the activity growth. More precisely, this means reducing the absolute amount of GHG emissions together with a growing activity. This makes them frontrunners in the climate transition.
3. The type of transported products is also critical. In a transition scenario, freight transport companies must anticipate a business model reassessment. They will have to take a critical look at which products they want to transport (e.g. fossil fuels – yes or no?) and to which clients they want to provide services.

The approved targets of Lineas clearly take these three challenges into account.

Emissions Analysis and Monitoring Tool

By their own operations or from contracted services, the train engines are the main cause of Lineas’ emissions. To gain more insight into the evolution of these emissions and their concentration, Climact developed a custom analysis and monitoring tool for Lineas. This allows them to break down the difference in emissions from one year to the next into three components, per geography:

1. The evolution of transported volumes in ton/km.
2. The evolution of the energy efficiency, expressed as the amount of energy consumed per ton/km.
3. The change in emissions per unit of energy – or the emission factor.

This information is vital to understand whether emissions changed because of higher throughput, a change in efficiency or a change in the energy vector used. For example, switching from diesel engines to electric engines will drastically reduce the emissions per ton/km.

With this tool, Lineas can monitor their emissions year after year and check whether they are still on track to reach their targets.

Biofuels

One of the options to reduce emissions from the train engines is to switch from conventional fossil fuels – diesel – to low-carbon alternatives like biofuels. Climact provided expert guidance on different types of biofuels and their potential pitfalls.

Biofuels can have higher overall emissions than fossils fuels, depending on the raw materials and production methods. Although the direct emissions during combustion (tank-to-wheel) are offset by the carbon absorbed during biomass growth (carbon removals), the total emissions can be dominated by well-to-tank factors. Well-to-tank emissions include product transport, processing, and the impacts of direct and indirect land-use changes (LUC and ILUC). Climact’s Regulatory team conducted a comprehensive study, comparing SBTi and GHG Protocol guidelines with Belgian and European laws. This study will guide Lineas in avoiding high-ILUC-risk biofuels and provide procurement recommendations on biofuel purchases.

Based on this study, Climact has also developed a tool to calculate the emissions savings in scope 1 (tank-to-wheel) and scope 3 (well-to-tank) based on the information provided by the biofuel’s supplier on their Proof of Sustainability. This is in line with the European Renewable Energy Directive (RED-II).

The Climact team is proud to have provided these services to Lineas, a company that brings a climate-friendly alternative to road transport. Despite their anticipated growth, Lineas is committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the science-based targets.

Do you want to know more? Reach out to our expert Maarten Tytgat

[email protected]

Picture by Zoé de Meulemeester