At the example of Daimler Trucks, this thesis aims at raising awareness for highly possible changes in the business environment of every major company that uses sophisticated logistic networks in order to enhance competitive advantage. Excessive emissions of GHGs, especially CO2 trigger these developments and are at the center of the thesis at hand.
Part one will comprise the whole theoretical background by first introducing strong arguments of avoiding a temperature rise above 2°C. Afterwards, the importance of identifying GHG externalities as an economic parameter is emphasized and thus, government regulation of emissions is justified. Thereafter, the thesis will focus on the freight transport sector, which will be hit especially hard by respective government regulation. Freight demand and corresponding emissions under a BAU scenario will be contrasted with those of under the IEA’s 450ppm scenario. The 450ppm scenario describes necessary emission pathways in order to avoid global temperature rises beyond 2°C.
As many worldwide acting companies, Daimler will most probably be faced with some sort of the 450ppm scenario, whereas company-specific threats and challenges have not yet been examined. Therefore, Daimler Trucks will be shortly illustrated in terms of how GHG emissions are handled. The bridge between theoretical background (part three) and empirical part of this thesis (Part four) is the application of the comparison between BAU and 450ppm to the real case of Daimler Trucks in the light of the following research question: How far does the current internal logistics of Daimler Trucks comply with possible market conditions and policy regulations of a 2°C target scenario?