International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications

Net-Zero Pathways in Logistics, Transportation, and Supply Chain Management

International organizations such as International Maritime Organization (IMO), European Union (EU), and United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have begun implementing regulations and guidelines for decarbonization of transportation, manufacturing, and logistics industries. The IMO’s 2023 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Strategy targets net-zero GHG emissions from international shipping by or around 2050. The EU has adopted the EU Emission Trading System (ETS), effective on 1 January 2024, and the FuelEU, effective on 1 January 2025. The above two organisations have driven stakeholders in maritime transportation and logistics toward net-zero pathways through regulatory and pricing measures. Meanwhile, the green shipping corridor (GSC) by the Clydebank Declaration at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UNFCCC has been initiated in November 2021, based on the IMO’s regulations, the Paris Agreement, and others (Song et al., 2025), aiming at decarbonizing the maritime industry.

Unlike the IMO and the EU, since COP29, GSC has aimed to integrate land and river transportation modes into sea transportation to achieve overall decarbonization of multimodal transport (Lee et al., 2026). In particular, major cargo owners, as one of ten stakeholders of GSC (e.g., Amazon, IKEA, Unilever, Walmart, BP Oil), have committed to transporting their cargoes by zero-emission vessels within the time frame announced. In addition, other stakeholders such as port authorities, shipbuilding companies, shipping companies, ship classification societies, central governments, green fuel producers, not to mention the IMO and the EU, have formed a coalition platform at every COP meeting to promote decarbonization at sea and a multimodal transport network.

As for maritime transportation and logistics and supply chain management, the rapid advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies has become a catalyst of digital transformation and driving force to accelerate convergence towards net-zero carbon emissions (Raman et al., 2025). The integration of AI and big data technologies can be applied for optimizing logistical operations and minimizing carbon footprints through real-time monitoring, demand forecasting, and route optimization to reduce fuel consumption and GHG emissions in logistics and transportation (Chen et al., 2024; Ojadi et al., 2024). These analytical capabilities allow organizations to improve the environmental performance and ensure that emission reductions can be realized through data-driven decision-making. Thus, all the stakeholders in the industries and governments have shifted from advocacy to setting up more targeted goals that they should achieve by the given time frame in the context of the net-zero paths. After addressing challenges of net zero and carbon neutrality initiatives in supply chain management (SCM), Chen et al. (Table 8 in 2026) has suggested research gaps of decarbonization at the global, country, industry and company levels. However, the paper has not addressed key challenges of higher capital costs (CAPEX) and higher operating costs (OPEX) to use green fuel energy in association with new vehicles and new technologies in the context of green transport and logistics chains model (Lee et al., 2026). On top of that, it is imperative for the net-zero paths to establish sustainable green energy supply chains. In other words, the stakeholders in the transport, logistics, and supply chain industries are facing the above three challenges in implementing net-zero paths. To cope with them, the stakeholders in the industries and governments should seek key success factors in implementing it. Existing literature have not addressed the above challenges in a comprehensive and integrated approaches.

To fill such research gap, this SI on the Net-Zero Pathways in Logistics, Transportation, and Supply Chain Management aims to address not only reduction of direct emissions from transport operations, modal shift, use of alternative fuels, but also transformation of entire supply chains through AI-powered digitalization and adoption of new technologies. This SI contributes to exploring how to enable the logistics and transportation industries to achieve carbon reduction in their supply chains and multimodal transportation network and how to adopt AI and big data technologies and pricing and incentivization policies to support decarbonization technology adoption. The findings in the SI contributes to providing research community and practitioners in transport, logistics and supply chains with managerial and policy insights and expanding literature of net-zero pathways in logistics, transportation, and supply chain management.

This Special Issue invites research on the following themes, but not limited to:

• Decarbonization pathways for transport and logistics services
• Zero-emission freight transport
• Decarbonization and digitalization in transport and logistics services
• Application of AI & big data for decarbonization
• Green shipping and digital corridors
• Green transport and logistics models
• Green fuel supply chains, comprising supply, transport, and storage,
• Green energy transitions in smart cities
• Sustainable procurement for net-zero transitions
• Regenerative supply chain design and resilient networks
• Electrification of transport fleets and charging infrastructure challenges
• Policy, regulation, and carbon pricing impacts on logistics decarbonisation
• Safety and environmental monitoring.

Guest editors’ biography:

Paul Tae-Woo Lee (Lead Guest Editor) is a Professor and the Director of the Maritime Logistics and Free Trade Islands Research Centre at Ocean College, Zhejiang University in China. He holds a Ph.D. degree from Cardiff University in the U.K. Paul has published nine books and more than 150 papers in international journals and edited 34 special issues of distinguished international journals, including International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications. He is Associate Editor of international journals in transport and logistics fields and Book Editor of Elsevier’s China Transportation Series and Anthem Book Series of SCM, Maritime Transport and Logistics.

Kai-Chieh Hu is a distinguished professor of the Department of Business Administration and the Dean of the Office of Research Development, Soochow University, Taiwan. Hu’s main areas of expertise are service marketing, logistics and transportation management. He has published more than 60 papers in international journals. He is also a member of the editorial board of Journal of Quality.

Kyoung-Suk Choi is the Dean of the College of Business and Economics and an Associate Professor in the Department of International Trade at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) in the Republic of Korea. She earned her doctoral degrees in Korea and China and has published choice papers in leading SSCI/SCIE journals in international transport and logistics. In particular, she has researched the relationship between logistics and regional and national economic development. Recently, she has been researching global supply chains and sustainable logistics policies.

References:

Chen, C. H., Chen, G., He, J., & Kannan, D. (2024). Big data for logistics decarbonization. Annals of Operations Research, 343(3), 923-925. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-024-06405-7

Chen, G., Lim, M. K., Yeo, W., & Tseng, M. L. (2026). Net zero vs. carbon neutrality: supply chain management challenges and future research agenda. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 29(1), 35–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/13675567.2024.2359058

Lee, P.T.-W., Kim, G.S. Kim, Tran, D.P., Feng, X., Nkhoma, M., Visamitanan, K., Nari, H.P., Muangpan, T., & Shin, S-H. (2026). A conceptual model of Mekong River green corridors for inland water transport and logistics. International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications, 1-20. DOI: 10.1080/13675567.2026.2634011.

Lee, P.T.-W., Shin, S-H, Lee, S-J, Chhetri, P., Chen, J, Yang, Z. (2026). Green shipping corridors: implementation barriers and strategic research directions. Maritime Policy & Management. DOI - 10.1080/03088839.2026.2671534.

Ojadi, J. O., Odionu, C. S., Onukwulu, E. C., & Owulade, O. A. (2024). Big data analytics and ai for optimizing supply chain sustainability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in logistics and transportation. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Growth Evaluation, 5(1), 1536–1548. https://doi.org/10.54660/.ijmrge.2024.5.1.1536-1548

Raman, R., Gunasekaran, A., & Mandal, S. (2025). Advancing net-zero supply chain management: a machine learning driven review aligned with the sustainable development goals. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 1–35. DOI: 10.1080/13675567.2025.2552754

Song, Z.-Y., Chhetri, P., Ye, G., & Lee, P.T.-W. (2025). Green maritime logistics coalition by green shipping corridors: a new paradigm for the decarbonisation of the maritime industry. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 28(4), 363-379. DOI: 10.1080/13675567.2023.2256243.