The decarbonisation of transport logistics: a South African case study

Abstract

South Africa is currently one of the “dirtiest” economies in the world in terms of carbon emis-sions. The South African economy is heavily dependent on energy-intensive industries, such as mining and primary minerals beneficiation, which in turn rely on fossil fuels as a source of en-ergy. Sustainability is still a relatively new concept in South Africa, but awareness is growing, and there are several on-going initiatives aimed at reducing the country’s total energy consump-tion. The objective of this paper is to apply the TIMBER framework to assess current transport decarbonisation activities in South Africa. The article discusses a limited field survey of ten im-portant logistics experts in South Africa to establish whether the findings of the researchers are similar to the perceptions within the logistics sector of major industries in South Africa. This paper concludes by providing possible solutions for reducing carbon emissions in South Africa’s logistics industry.

Keywords: carbon emissions; decarbonisation; sustainability; TIMBER; transport logistics