UNCTAD Land Freight Emissions Model is a flexible Excel spreadsheet model consisting of a corridor model, a truck fleet model, and a rail model. The model is designed to assess and monitor improvements in CO2 and air pollutant emissions (PM, NOx, CO, VOC) from freight transport using data collected from actual freight operations.
UNCTAD Land Freight Emissions Model is a quick and responsive tool that utilizes efficient data to estimate air pollutant emissions and carbon emissions from land transport. It incorporates a set of default encoded parameters based on existing literature. The results of the evaluation provide valuable insights to inform policy decisions and guide the development of alternative strategies for emission reduction.
- The corridor model considers various road configurations and employs a capacity analysis for baseline and project scenarios. It evaluates emissions, factoring in “gross emissions” influenced by speed and road pavement configuration. It adjusts fuel efficiency based on traffic speed and uses pavement roughness as a proxy for road quality improvement. To use the tool, data requirements are categorized into three tiers: project-specific data (Tier 1), data based on local or regional sources (Tier 2), and data from international sources (Tier 3).
- The truck fleet model is a tool for fleet operators to calculate the air emissions generated during fleet operations based on truck-specific details (about 13 specific details), including the number of wheels, fuel types (diesel, gasoline, CNG, and LPG), kilometers per year, fuel consumption per year, average payload/loaded trip, average distance per trip, average speed, etc.). The results of the evaluation provided by the fleet model include air emissions as well as fuel consumption (total, during idling, and during empty trips) and fuel efficiency.
- The rail model allows you to calculate and estimate air emissions from rail roads by entering the type of fuel used and fuel consumption or energy efficiency. The tool also provides default emission factors for diesel and electricity. For electrified railways, the model can calculate CO2 emissions and other GHG and air pollutant emissions (including CH4, N2O, NMVOC, and SO2) based on the type and amount of fuel used to generate electricity.
More detailed explanations and instructions on the UNCTAD Land Freight Emissions Model are available in the Excel file.