A European Union regulation establishing a single, harmonised methodology for calculating transport greenhouse gas emissions officially entered into force in June and will apply from 2030, according to railwaygazette.com.

The new EU framework, known as CountEmissionsEU, covers all major transport modes, including passenger and freight rail transport. The goal is to create one methodology so that emissions figures from rail, road, aviation, shipping and inland waterways can be compared on the same basis.

The regulation was proposed by the European Commission in July 2023 as part of the Greening of Freight Package. After negotiations with the European Parliament and the member states, the final act was signed on April 29 2026. The regulation entered into force on June 2 and will apply from December 2 2030.

The regulation is based on the international standard EN ISO 14083:2023, which defines how greenhouse gas emissions from transport chains are calculated and allocated. Rail operators have traditionally used different national or company methodologies. Under CountEmissionsEU, if a company publishes transport emissions figures for marketing, procurement, reporting or contractual purposes, it must use the common methodology. This should make comparisons much more transparent.

For railways, emissions are generally calculated using:

• Energy consumption of train (electricity or diesel);
• The emission factor of the energy source used;
• For electric trains, this depends on the electricity mix;
• For diesel trains, fuel consumption and fuel lifecycle emissions are included;
• The load factors used;
• Distance travelled;
• Allocation of emissions to passenger-km for passenger trains and tonne-km for freight.

The regulation specifically foresees transport emissions being expressed in comparable metrics such as grams or kilograms of CO₂e per passenger-km and grams or kilograms of CO₂e per tonne-km.

In addition, the regulation stipulates that the European Commission has to adopt implementing acts to ensure that a user-friendly, free of charge, simplified EU calculation tool will be available to facilitate calculations before the rules enter into force in 2030. Calculations must use the EN ISO 14083:2023 methodology, apply a well-to-wheel approach and produce metrics like mass CO₂e per passenger-km or tonne-km.

The well-to-wheel approach means that not only the local emissions a train produces are taken into account, but also the emissions of the energy production. For hydrogen trains for example, trains could, in theory, not be called zero-emission if grey hydrogen (hydrogen produced with fossil energy) is used in the hydrogen tank.

Any external calculation software or tools used by transport operators must be officially certified by an independent conformity assessment body to ensure they comply with the EN ISO 14083:2023 standard.

The regulation requires companies to prioritise primary data (actual energy consumption and real operations data) over secondary data (default estimates). Member states can also make the use of primary data compulsory for large entities operating domestic transport services.

The rules do not require every railway undertaking to publish emissions data. But, if a railway company chooses to publish emissions figures, or is required to provide them in a report, contract of tender, it must in the future use the CountEmissionsEU methodology.

Although the combined transport sector organisation UIRR strongly advocated for the CountEmissionsEU regulation to be mandatory rather than voluntary, in the regulation’s final text, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are exempt from the mandatory independent verification of their emissions data. However they can request it voluntarily.