Sustainable mobility, a path without footprint

The fight against climate change takes place in different fields. The effort to mitigate the effects of pollution must be addressed through multiple avenues, with a focus on integrating sustainable practices across all areas of activity—both personal and business—for a cross-cutting response. However, certain activities have a higher carbon footprint. Among them is transport, which must have its ecological counterpart: sustainable mobility.

In a globalized world, transport is one of the key sectors, both in terms of personal mobility and shipping of goods. The intricate consumption networks, which outsource the extraction of raw materials, production, and manufacturing of goods away from the countries of final destination, along with an environment where travel for both work and leisure has become increasingly common, have amplified the growth of this sector.

According to the European Commission, the transport industry in the region employs 10 million people and accounts for 5% of gross domestic product. More data to understand its relevance at the population level: on average, 13 percent of household budgets is allocated to travel expenses. The United Nations anticipates activity linked to transport to increase by more than twice its weight in 2050, compared to 2015 data.

This implies a corresponding ecological footprint, and it is not exactly small. According to Transport & Environment, the European Federation for Transport and the Environment, transport accounts for the largest source of emissions in the EU, surpassing industry, public electricity and heating, buildings, agriculture, and waste. The percentage of greenhouse gas emissions from transport in Europe is expected to rise, reaching 44% of the total by 2030, compared to the current 29%. When we talk about decarbonization, the process to replace the use of polluting energies with clean ones, the federation’s data also speaks of a challenge that remains to be faced: transport has decarbonized three times slower than the rest of the economy. In the United States, the data is similar: transport is the industry that most pollutes the atmosphere, responsible for 28 percent of emissions in 2022 according to the country’s Environmental Protection Agency.

Worldwide, 23 percent of greenhouse emissions are related to the transport sector, according to the UN. 70% of these emissions are produced by road transport, while aviation accounts for 12%, maritime 11%, and train 1%. Overall, the sector is highly dependent on fossil fuels: 95 percent of the world’s energy used for this purpose depends on these sources of energy. To mitigate this issue, “transformative changes” are required on a global scale, as outlined in the Sixth Assessment Report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In this regard, beyond individual actions, a global commitment is essential, one that inevitably includes the involvement of institutions and businesses in promoting sustainable mobility.

Most of the solution to the pollution problem in the mobility area involves accelerating the transition to electric vehicles, as Deloitte signals in its recommendations for Spain. At an institutional level, this means ensuring the development of charging infrastructure for both passenger and freight transport, as well as providing incentives for purchasing such vehicles, as their cost remains one of the main obstacles to their widespread adoption. The move to more sustainable means, such as train versus truck fleets for light transport, is another option on the table. Again, infrastructure is lacking and costs are high.

This does not mean that there are no measures that can be adopted at the business level. At MAPFRE, we have implemented environmental policies to reduce our emissions from transport. These account for 72% of our carbon footprint, mainly due to the travel of our workforce to their workstations and business trips. We have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a commitment to sustainable mobility. Hence, measures such as promoting work methods that eliminate the need for commuting or encouraging the use of collective and less polluting transport are essential.

Regarding the value chain, we have made progress over the past year, such as ensuring that the entire fleet of vehicles assigned to the management teams now carries the ECO environmental label. We have an ECO Vehicle project in Spain focused on battery replacement to increase the number of specialized providers for these types of issues. Additionally, our fleet includes 28 hybrid towing vehicles and 42 repair shop vehicles that are either 100% electric or use liquefied gas (LPG).

We are determined to move toward a scenario that significantly reduces emissions in the transport sector, and we understand that implementing these measures is essential for a global commitment.

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