Zero-Emission Trucks: The Global Memorandum and Australia’s Position

By Steven Ballerini | CEO of Australasian Supply Chain & Logistics Association (ASCLA)

On 11 May 2026, the Victorian Government endorsed the Global Memorandum of Understanding on Zero-Emission Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles, joining the Australian Capital Territory as the second Australian subnational signatory. The Memorandum is the principal international coordination instrument on heavy-vehicle decarbonisation, with 43 national governments now aligned. The Australian Commonwealth has not signed. For an industry that generates more than 80 per cent of national freight emissions and is navigating the most volatile fuel-cost environment in a generation, the Memorandum is worth understanding in detail, regardless of where the Federal position lands.

What the Global Memorandum Is

The Global Memorandum of Understanding on Zero-Emission Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles was launched at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, co-led by the Netherlands and CALSTART’s Drive to Zero program. Signatories commit to working toward 100 per cent zero-emission new truck and bus sales by 2040, with an interim goal of 30 per cent by 2030, to support net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The instrument is not a treaty and is not legally binding. It is a coordination mechanism that aligns signatories on policy, finance and infrastructure work, supports a shared progress dashboard, and provides a forum for working through implementation challenges.

As of May 2026, signatory nations include Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Türkiye. Together they account for around one-fifth of global truck sales and 42 per cent of global GDP. The list includes most of the markets from which Australian fleet operators currently source trucks.

At the 2021 launch, Dr. Cristiano Façanha, then Global Director of CALSTART’s Drive to Zero program, framed the case in terms that have aged sharply. A global zero-emission heavy vehicle agreement, he argued, would not only help nations achieve climate and air quality goals, it would also “drive new investment and good-paying manufacturing jobs while improving energy security and independence for leading edge nations”. Five years on, energy security and independence are exactly the lens through which Australian operators are reading their own operating environment, after eighteen months of fuel-cost volatility traceable to events outside any operator’s control.

Where Australia Sits

Australia’s position on the Memorandum is best described as adjacent rather than opposed. The Federal Government has progressed substantial work in adjoining policy areas. The National Electric Vehicle Strategy, the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, the Transport and Infrastructure Net Zero Roadmap and Action Plan, and recent commitments to Commonwealth fleet electrification all sit within the same policy space. What the Commonwealth has not done is sign the Memorandum itself or adopt its specific heavy-vehicle sales targets.

Victoria’s endorsement, announced by Premier Jacinta Allan and Minister for Ports and Freight Melissa Horne, was packaged with two state-funded support programs already in market: the $8 million Victorian Freight Decarbonisation Co-Investment Program and the $1.5 million Victorian Electric Heavy Vehicle Trial. It also referenced support for the Sydney to Melbourne “Hume Zero” corridor, being developed in parallel through CALSTART and NewVolt as the first Green Road Corridor in the Asia-Pacific to be powered fully by renewables. The corridor will span 880 kilometres and is projected to cut 200,000 tonnes of CO2 annually by 2030.

Minister Horne framed the endorsement in supply-chain rather than climate-rhetoric terms, noting that “freight demand will more than double by 2050” and that the endorsement “links Victoria to a global push to cut emissions and halve them by 2030”. CALSTART CEO Michael Berube pointed to the practical value of subnational endorsement, describing the role of states and provinces as “critical in accelerating zero-emission trucks and buses” and noting that Victoria’s endorsement would “help jointly reduce transport emissions, enhance fuel resilience, and support faster adoption of zero-emission vans, trucks and buses”.

What the Australian Industry Has Said

The Australian freight industry has been engaged with the Memorandum as a policy instrument since 2023. In May of that year, the Electric Vehicle Council, Australian Trucking Association, Heavy Vehicle Industry Association and Australian Hydrogen Council issued a joint call for a National Zero Emission Truck Strategy, with the first action being a request for the Australian Government to adopt the Memorandum’s 30% by 2030 and 100% by 2040 targets. The Australian Trucking Association has since formalised this position in its policy submissions.

Samuel Marks, Sustainability and Future Transport Manager at the Australian Trucking Association, made the case in operational rather than ideological terms. Australia, he argued, “has a legislated net zero emissions target but needs a strategy for zero emissions trucks”, and operators need to be able to “move from one-off pilot projects to a strategy that enables all trucking operators to plan with certainty for low and zero emissions transport”. The Electric Vehicle Council’s Behyad Jafari linked the policy ask to sovereign resilience, in language closer to a defence brief than a climate one. “Australia relies on trucks to function, but right now those trucks need imported oil to keep moving”, he wrote. “We don’t need to be this vulnerable, because our truck fleet can run on renewable energy we make domestically. We just need to get the policy settings right”.

In March 2026, a joint letter to Federal Minister for Infrastructure Catherine King and Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, coordinated through the Drive to Zero coalition, repeated the call. The letter noted that road freight contributes 8.6 per cent of GDP, accounts for over 80 per cent of freight emissions, and produces around one-third of national transport emissions, while electric truck sales in Australia remain below one per cent of the market.

What This Means for the ASCLA Community

Whether or not the Commonwealth signs in the next twelve months, the Memorandum has three commercial implications members should be naming in their FY27 planning conversations.

First, vehicle supply. Truck manufacturers allocate zero-emission inventory to markets that send a clear policy signal. Until the Federal position firms, Australia will continue to receive the residual product allocations that markets with a national commitment do not absorb. Members operating mixed fleets should expect zero-emission truck lead times in Australia to remain longer than in comparable markets through to the end of the decade.

Second, infrastructure investment timing. Charging and hydrogen refuelling investment cases concentrate in jurisdictions with a signed national or subnational commitment. The Hume Zero corridor will be the focal point for the first wave of investment regardless of where members’ actual volume sits. Network planning that assumed uniform national rollout should be re-examined.

Third, customer expectations. Large shippers operating across Memorandum jurisdictions, which increasingly includes any business with European, North American or New Zealand operations, are embedding zero-emission freight commitments in procurement documentation. Members tendering for multinational shipper work in 2027 and beyond should expect to be asked about their zero-emission transition plan, irrespective of the Australian Federal position. The shipper-side requirement is moving faster than the policy environment on either side.

The Last Word

The Global Memorandum will not, on its own, change what any ASCLA member does on Monday morning. The trucks running today still need diesel, the customers being served still want delivery yesterday, and an unsigned international coordination instrument does not solve either problem.

But the Memorandum has now reached a point where it is shaping vehicle allocation decisions in Tokyo, Stuttgart and Detroit, infrastructure investment decisions in Brussels and London, and procurement decisions in retailer and manufacturer head offices around the world. Two Australian jurisdictions are now part of that network. New Zealand has been part of it since 2021. The Federal position will resolve one way or the other, and members should be planning for both.

The Association will continue to follow the policy work closely and provide member updates as the Federal position develops. In the meantime, the practical message is straightforward. Understand the Memorandum. Plan against it. Engage with the conversation. The questions members will face from boards, banks and customers over the next twelve months will assume a level of fluency on this topic that did not exist twelve months ago.

References

Global Commercial Drive To Zero Program — Global Memorandum of Understanding on Zero-Emission Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles — https://globaldrivetozero.org/mou-nations/

Signed Signatories (April 2026 update) — https://globaldrivetozero.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Signed-Signatories-2026.4.1_43.pdf

Partnership To Reduce Freight Vehicle Reliance On Fuel — Premier of Victoria (11 May 2026) — https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/partnership-reduce-freight-vehicle-reliance-fuel

Joint letter on Australia’s Zero-Emission Freight Transition — Drive to Zero (March 2026) — https://globaldrivetozero.org/2026/03/26/australia-joint-letter/

Australia needs a National Zero Emission Truck Strategy — Australian Hydrogen Council, ATA, EVC, HVIA joint release (May 2023) — https://h2council.com.au/media-releases/national-zero-emission-truck-strategy/

Climate change and zero emission vehicles — Australian Trucking Association policy submission — https://www.truck.net.au/advocacy/submissions/climate-change-and-zero-emission-vehicles

Transport and Infrastructure Net Zero Roadmap and Action Plan — Commonwealth of Australia (2025) — https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/transport-and-infrastructure-net-zero-roadmap-and-action-plan.pdf

Drive to Zero Newsletter — November 2025 (Sydney–Melbourne Powered by Renewables Corridor announcement) — https://globaldrivetozero.org/2025/11/20/drive-to-zero-newsletter-november-2025/