Transport emissions

A carbon figure per parcel has been easy to publish and hard to compare, because every tool used its own method. Since 1 June 2026, Regulation (EU) 2026/1030, known as CountEmissionsEU, has been in force and names one common method, EN ISO 14083; its main obligations apply from 2 December 2030. There is no general duty to calculate transport emissions. But emissions that are calculated and disclosed within the regulation's scope have to follow the method.

The change for brands

If you publish a transport emissions figure, on a tracking page or in a report, and it falls within the regulation's scope, it now has a reference method, and the question anyone can ask is whether yours follows it. A number from a calculator that uses its own factors is a number without a standard behind it. Under the rules on environmental claims, an unsupported figure is also hard to defend. The safe path is to use EN ISO 14083 for any transport figure you disclose.

The regulation names EN ISO 14083 as the common method. The standard itself sets how a figure is built. We keep the events a parcel generates as it moves, collected, sorted, delivered, per shipment. That is how we build our own data; it is not something the regulation or the standard asks of you.

In scope, the method is fixed. Outside it, a figure is only as good as the method you can name.

ETS2 and road fuel

Emissions trading for buildings and road transport, ETS2, is planned to launch in 2028. On 9 October 2026 the Council signed off on rules strengthening its market stability reserve. For a brand there is nothing to report under ETS2; the effect is on cost. ETS2 is planned to put a price on emissions from road transport from 2028, and a cost on road transport can reach a parcel through the carrier's charges for it. It is one reason a carrier's cost per parcel will keep moving after 2028, and why rates are quoted on your own lanes rather than priced from a list, as Lane quotes explains.

CO2-based truck tolls

On 7 October 2026 the European Parliament approved CO2-based road charging for heavy vehicles: up to 75 per cent toll reductions for low-emission trucks until 30 June 2031, and up to 50 per cent after that. Council approval is pending. The effect, once adopted, is that a carrier running a cleaner fleet pays less in tolls. It ties a transport cost directly to a vehicle's emissions.

The method question

Ask whoever gives you an emissions figure per shipment (a carrier, a tool or a consultant) which method it follows. For anything calculated and disclosed in scope, the answer has to be EN ISO 14083; the regulation's main obligations apply from 2 December 2030. Before then, a figure without a named method is hard to defend when a customer or a regulator asks about it.