Tokyo – Big Data to Promote Eco-Friendly Freight Transport

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Population: 13,96 mill

Climate: Humid subtropical

Duration: Currently

Sector: Transport

Funding sources: Public

City networks: C40

Savings: 20% reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has been achieved for trucks participating in the program by 2017;

Solutions: The City of Tokyo will employ cutting-edge indicators to assess the fuel efficiency of freight trucks, allowing the shipping industry to select the most environmentally friendly freight companies.

Multiple benefits: Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions reduction.

Tokyo intends to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% below 2000 levels by 2030, with the transportation sector reducing CO2 emissions by 60%. Targeting the freight transport industry will be critical to meeting these targets, as trucks account for nearly 40% of vehicle CO2 emissions.

Objective – Reduce CO2 emissions by making the efficiency of freight trucks entirely transparent.

Solutions – The City of Tokyo intends to cut CO2 emissions by making the efficiency of freight trucks entirely transparent. Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) launched the world’s first fuel efficiency indicator for freight transport by collecting data from 960,000 trucks each month. TMG assesses more than seven million samples and categorizes them into 60 different segments based on truck type, fuel, and total vehicle weight. TMG quantitatively evaluates freight firms’ CO2 reduction efforts based on the metrics and encourages freight businesses to make additional efforts. Shippers will reward freight businesses who can demonstrate success, and their efforts will be visible on trucks with a one to three-star rating system. The program has 264 freight companies participating, and the number of participating vehicles surpasses 10,000 trucks.

Funding – N/A

Innovation – TMG created the world’s first freight fuel efficiency indicator by gathering data from 960,000 trucks each month.

Success factors: It is costly to replace freight trucks with more environmentally friendly ones; promoting a more efficient driving style is more suitable for many businesses.

Significant outcomes:

• Trucks participating in the initiative have achieved a 20% decrease in CO2 emissions;
• Fuel usage has been reduced by 20%, saving the companies money on operating expenditures each month.

Synergies with local policies:

• The 10-Year Plan was established in 2006 to lower citywide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25% below 2000 levels by 2020, making Tokyo the world’s most environmentally friendly city;
• Zero Emission Tokyo Strategy. Tokyo intends to keep the average world temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius and achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050. It plans to promote the use of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the urban infrastructure sector.

Political alignment:

• Eco-car’’ tax. As part of a stimulus package in response to the global financial crisis, Japan approved “eco-car” tax reductions and subsidies in April 2009. The program was designed to help the domestic car industry during the global crisis while simultaneously encouraging the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles. For energy-efficient automobiles, the tax incentive offers a 50–100% decrease in the automobile weight tax and automobile acquisition tax;
• Japanese energy efficiency policy. Japan has set a target of lowering GHG emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020;
• Japan’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). Japan intends to reduce its GHG emissions by 46 per cent from the fiscal year 2013 levels in the fiscal year 2030, an ambitious objective that aligns with the long-term goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The transportation sector’s goal is to reduce CO2 emissions by 146 million tons compared to the fiscal year 2013.

Marketability: N/A