UP Issues 2022 Climate Action Plan

Union Pacific (UP) on Nov. 15 published a 2022 Climate Action Plan outlining efforts to reduce its environmental impact, to achieve its science-based target, and to attain net zero emissions by 2050.

“Our commitment to mitigating the impacts of climate change is underscored by our science-based target to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and GHG emissions on a well-to-wheel basis from locomotive operations 26% by 2030 from a 2018 base year,” UP Executive Vice President-Sustainability and Strategy and Chief Human Resource Officer Beth Whited reported in the 29-page plan (scroll down to download).  

UP has taken the following steps toward reaching its goals since releasing its first climate action plan in December 2021:    

• UP has streamlined operations—“from right-sizing trains to applying new technologies designed to result in fuel-saving and improved tractive force for increased fuel efficiency”—which Whited said resulted in reducing fuel consumption by more than 11 million gallons in 2021 compared with 2020.
• UP modernized 120 existing locomotives during 2021—a move that not only improves reliability, but also makes each unit up to 5% more fuel efficient and emit approximately 53% less emissions, according to the railroad. It also committed to spending more than $1 billion on modernizing an additional 600 locomotives from 2023 through 2025. “The modernizations should provide approximately 350 tons of carbon reduction per locomotive per year, and the total order for 600 locomotives will realize approximately 210,000 tons in annual emission reductions,” Whited reported.
• “We worked hand-in-hand with our locomotive and fuel suppliers to increase our use of renewable diesel and biofuels,” Whited wrote in the plan. “Our 2021 low-carbon fuel consumption rose to 3.0% of total diesel consumed, up from 2.2% in 2020. As we approach the end of 2022, this number is climbing above 4.0%.”
• UP in January announced plans to purchase 20 battery-electric locomotives for testing in freight yard operations. “We are piloting this technology in its early-adoption phase to better understand how we could deploy it at scale in our operations, and give feedback to manufacturers to advance battery-electric locomotive development,” Whited said.
• UP formed partnerships to help reduce its climate impact. “We announced a strategic alliance with Shell and a partnership with a green technology company and leader in locomotive control systems to build hybrid-electric switch locomotives that will likely play a role in our transition to net zero,” reported Whited.
• UP teamed with nonprofit The Nature Conservancy (TNC) on three community-level environmental initiatives in Nebraska, California and Texas.
• “We became the first U.S. railroad to formally support the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), reinforcing our company’s commitment to transparent disclosure,” Whited said. “We are committed to continuing to implement the TCFD framework in our climate reporting.”

Whited noted in the 2022 Climate Action Plan that “[a]lthough our absolute GHG emissions increased 3.6% in 2021 over 2020, driven by increased demand for transportation services and service interruptions, our emissions intensity decreased by 2.2%.”

According to the plan, UP formally committed with the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) to revise its near-term emissions reduction target to support a 1.5ºC climate ambition, as well as set and validate a net-zero emissions target. Additionally, the railroad earlier this year conducted a climate-scenario analysis “to better understand the risks to and opportunities for our operations, infrastructure and supply chains from specific climate scenarios,” Whited explained. “The analysis is being used to evaluate and develop strategies to allow us to respond to both high- and low-carbon scenarios.”

“We must continue to be forward thinking in our initiatives to see reductions in our absolute emissions,” UP Vice President-Labor Relations and Sustainability Maqui Parkerson said during the plan’s Nov. 14 release. “Climate change is caused by human behavior and recognizing our community impact is imperative.”