“Too much traffic for a good climate”

Frank Appel, director of Germany’s postal service Deutsche Post AG, says the country is unlikely to achieve its aim of shifting a considerable share of its freight transports from road to railroad to reduce emissions, Alfons Frese writes for Der Tagesspiegel. Germany’s railway system is “not flexible enough” for distances below 500 kilometres, while for longer distances there were “not enough lines,” Frese writes. Expanding the railway network is unlikely to be an option since citizens would resist it, Appel added. According to Deutsche Post's director, the CO₂ problem will nevertheless “be solved in the coming decades,” but mainly through the use of e-cars and diesel cars with tighter emissions controls, Frese writes.

See the CLEW dossier The energy transition and Germany’s transport sector for background.