The Transport Sector is a major source of Greenhouse Gas emission. Cars, trucks, trains, ships and aircraft are all significant emitters. Collectively these vehicles account for around 13% of global emissions, a figure which is increasing. C-Questor’s transport sector aims to develop systems that recognize aspirations for improved transportation and trade while reducing the climate impact of resulting transport. Growing populations and increasing affluence are putting huge pressure on existing transportation infrastructure, and causing a rapid increase of transport CO2 emissions. There is now an opportunity to develop transportation along a new less carbon intensive path particularly in the fast growing developing nations and C-Questor is determined to facilitate this change.

‘Transport is a rapidly growing source of CO2 emissions which we hope to reduce through the introduction of biofuels and other measures.’

The use of cars and planes globally continues on a rapidly increasing trend, and likewise, the volume of shipping, particularly of freight, is increasing rapidly. Our travel and trade patterns are having serious consequences for the environment. The emissions of this major sector have to be brought under effective management, or growing emissions from transport will undermine any progress made in other sectors. C-Questor will seek to facilitate and implement improvements in this area using our wide ranging technical skills together with our economic, and political influence.

Transport Technical Overview
In every country in the world, people aspire to ever increasing levels of personal mobility and access to imported goods. In order for these services to continue to be available, a major adjustment needs to be made to transport efficiency, and to the sources of energy used to provide transportation. Ideally, transportation would run as efficiently as possible on electricity and bio-fuel. For road transport, the development path is likely to go via hybrid propulsion to plug in hybrid, to fully electric vehicles as battery technology develops.

‘Bio-fuels are carbon neutral when they are produced from sustainable sources. We are also developing catalytic technologies to reduce emissions in cars, planes and ships.’

In the case of marine transport, a direct mechanical contribution could reasonably be obtained from wind. Recent developments using kite sails indicate scope for around 10-20% fuel reduction on freight vessels. Innovations in aeroplane design will greatly reduce fuel consumption, and biologically derived fuels will begin to supply some of the demand in all forms of transport. In developing countries in particular, there may be a market for new technology steam trains running on dried locally obtained farm residues such as straw.

Our Ambitions for the Future
As a company, our role is most likely to be that of facilitator, drawing knowledge together, and assisting governments and organisations to cut the emissions associated with transport. We hope to be at the forefront of developments to produce transport fuels from cellulose, sewage and waste, so allowing the role of fossil fuels to be reduced without compromising food security. We also will aim to encourage electric urban light transport systems, which hold many of the advantages of personal transportation without the same level of cost and environmental impact, and to facilitate the implementation of fast rail systems including magnetic levitation to compete more effectively with flight.

Regarding the use of private vehicles, there is still considerable room to improve fleet fuel consumption - as specified by EU plans to reduce fleet average emissions to 80g of CO2 per km by 2020 - and to reduce per passenger mile figures significantly by organised car pooling systems. In urban locations with the right infrastructure, the bicycle can play an important role in local transportation, particularly with well organised public bicycle schemes such as are found in Copenhagen and Paris.