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India needs a policy overhaul to prevent its freight emissions from increasing 400 per cent by 2047, say authors of new report.
Whitepaper calls for a harmonised emissions accounting framework aligned with global standards to support decarbonisation.
Experts highlight the need for India-specific emission factors and a digital monitoring system.
India’s freight sector could see carbon dioxide emissions surge by nearly 400 per cent by 2047 if left unchecked, underscoring the urgent need for institutionalised emissions accounting and policy integration, according to a new whitepaper released by Smart Freight Centre (SFC) India in collaboration with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and IIM-Bangalore.
The whitepaper, titled Institutionalising Freight Emissions Accounting in India: Pathways for Clean Freight Programs and Policy Integration, calls for a nationally harmonised freight emissions accounting framework aligned with ISO 14083 (an international standard launched in March 2023 that provides a science-based method to measure and report GHG emissions across all transport modes and logistics hubs) and the Global Logistics Emissions Council Framework.
It proposes India-specific emission factors, a digital Monitoring, Reporting and Verification architecture, and a multi-stakeholder governance model to support credible, comparable and scalable emissions reporting across the logistics ecosystem.
Released at a high-level convening in New Delhi, the report positions measurement as the foundation of decarbonisation in one of India’s fastest-growing and most fragmented sectors.
“You cannot decarbonise what you cannot measure,” said Deepali Thakur, principal — technical, SFC India. She noted that standardised methodologies and India-specific emission factors would strengthen the technical basis for targeted interventions and provide a practical blueprint to make freight emissions accounting actionable at scale.
Freight transport accounts for a significant share of India’s transport emissions, with road freight dominating the modal mix. Rapid economic growth, expanding e-commerce, infrastructure build-out and rising consumption are expected to drive freight demand sharply upward in the coming decades.
However, the whitepaper highlights that emissions measurement practices remain fragmented. Companies use varied methodologies, emission factors and reporting boundaries, limiting comparability and weakening both corporate disclosures and policymaking.
TERI emphasised that institutionalising emissions accounting is essential not only for domestic decarbonisation but also for global market alignment.
“Measuring freight emissions is the critical first step,” said Sanjay Seth, senior director, Sustainable Infrastructure Programme, TERI. “Institutionalising freight emissions accounting in India, aligned with global clean freight programs, can support emissions reduction, provide a credible foundation for effective decarbonisation and enable participation in emerging compliance and carbon-market mechanisms.”
Officials from the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry underscored the strategic importance of embedding emissions accounting within India’s broader logistics transformation agenda, including the National Logistics Policy and PM Gati Shakti.
“Going ahead, freight emissions accounting will need to be integrated with other pillars of logistics infrastructure, supporting efficiency, competitiveness, and sustainability together,” said Sagar Kadu, director (logistics), DPIIT.
The Commission for Air Quality Management highlighted that freight transport is also a major source of local pollutants such as NOx, SOx, particulate matter and black carbon, particularly concentrated around logistics hubs and major freight corridors. Targeting emissions hotspots such as Delhi-NCR could offer scalable models for other polluted regions.
The event also saw the launch of several complementary initiatives designed to operationalise the framework:
India-specific electric vehicle emission factors developed by IIM-Bangalore and SFC
Demonstrations of the Transportation Emissions Measurement Tool to enable transparent reporting
Release of TERI’s Clean Freight Program Baseline Study (Phase II)
According to the authors, these tools aim to strengthen India’s readiness for future disclosure requirements, including Scope 3 emissions reporting, and enhance supply-chain transparency as global markets tighten carbon accountability norms.
Despite the roadmap, the report acknowledged significant implementation challenges. India’s freight sector is highly fragmented, dominated by small and medium fleet operators who often lack digital infrastructure and standardised data systems.
Capacity building, phased adoption, digital integration and coordination across ministries will be critical to ensure inclusivity and compliance, without adding undue burden.
Academia-industry collaboration will also play a key role in ensuring that data-driven frameworks translate into targeted interventions.
“Such frameworks enable more proportionate and effective policy design, helping focus on fleet modernisation, cleaner technologies and zero-emission freight solutions where they deliver the greatest impact,” said Aditya Gupta, chief operations officer, TCI-Supply Chain Sustainability Lab and Supply Chain Management Centre, IIM-Bangalore.
The whitepaper argued that credible emissions accounting is not merely a reporting exercise but the backbone of clean freight programmes, performance benchmarking, incentive design and future carbon-market participation.
As India advances toward its 2070 Net Zero target, freight decarbonisation is emerging as a critical frontier. With demand expected to multiply alongside economic growth, the window for embedding climate accountability into logistics systems is narrowing.
By proposing a nationally harmonised, globally aligned and India-adapted emissions accounting architecture, the SFC–TERI initiative seeks to ensure that India’s logistics expansion is matched by a credible pathway toward low- and zero-emission freight transport.