FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 11, 2020
Contact: Roxanna Smith
Roxanna.Smith@globaldrivetozero.org
+1 510.326.0390
NEW YORK – Today Dr. Cristiano Façanha, Global Director of CALSTART’s Global Commercial Vehicle Drive to Zero program and campaign (Drive to ZeroTM) delivered the closing remarks at the World Economic Forum’s “Fast-Forwarding the Race to Zero-Emission Trucking” event.
Dr. Facanha was joined by top commercial vehicle industry, regulatory and thought leaders to explore the policies, incentives and other actions needed to accelerate long-haul zero-emission fleets and supportive infrastructure with the aim of meeting Paris Accord climate goals by the year 2050. Participants in the event included California’s Secretary of Environmental Protection Jared Blumenfeld, Netherlands Minister for the Environment Stientje van Veldhoven, truck manufacturer Scania, fleet innovator DHL, multinational consumer goods company Unilever and others.
This event is a part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) “Race to Zero” campaign. The campaign’s stated mission is to “rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero-carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.”
Dr Façanha’s remarks:
As we heard just a moment ago from Secretary Blumenfeld, California is doing quite a lot to advance zero-emission trucks. Building on that, 15 states in the United States have agreed to work toward achieving a benchmark of 30 percent of new MHDV sales being zero-emission by the year 2030 and 100 percent being zero-emission by 2050. So, there’s quite a lot of momentum in California and the United States for zero-emission trucks. From now on, it’ll only get better.
The next step is to align leading nations around ambitious targets for zero-emission commercial vehicles (ZECVs) ahead of COP-26. We heard this loud and clear from the Dutch Minister Van Veldhoven and many others today.
CALSTART and our Drive to Zero program and campaign are committed to working toward this global alignment. We are a Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) campaign already counting the support of nine nations, including the Netherlands. So, we already have a forum for intergovernmental discussions, which will help countries to implement the policies and incentives to meet those targets.
In addition to supporting government, industry stakeholders are also a key audience for Drive to Zero. And that’s why CALSTART and Drive to Zero are excited to partner closely with WEF.
Thank you for the invitation to be here.
CALSTART | Changing transportation for good
A national nonprofit consortium with offices in New York, Michigan, Colorado and California and partners world-wide, CALSTART works with 250+ member company and agency innovators to build a prosperous, efficient and clean high-tech transportation industry. We knock out barriers to modernization and the adoption of clean vehicles. CALSTART is changing transportation for good.