Tough to Decarbonize Transportation

The “Tough to Decarbonize Transportation” (T2DT) project is a multidisciplinary research program to identify and advance economically viable technologies and policies for decarbonizing heavy-duty trucking, shipping, and aviation. T2DT is the backbone of the global economy, yet it will dominate carbon budgets by mid-century without further action. Our goal is to create T2DT which does not create climate and other catastrophic environmental damage and enables ever-greater parts of the global community to benefit from social, cultural, and economic connectedness. Breakthroughs will be needed in fuel chemistry and production, vehicles, operations, and policy to meet this goal. The environmental and economic impacts of the redesign must be understood holistically, including the full lifecycle, to ensure a truly sustainable future. Finally, energy and environmental policies must be designed to provide for a viable and equitable path to net-zero for T2DT by 2050.