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EU – TIGHTER EMISSIONS FOR TRANSPORT A CLEAR WIN-WIN STRATEGY

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BRUSSELS, Jan 3 2008 (IPS) - Strong environmental policies in transport will enable European firms to take the lead in technology development and help address many of today\’s geopolitical tensions, writes Jos Dings, director of the European Federation for Transport and Environment. In this analysis, Dings writes that today the transport sector is not moving in a sustainable direction: CO2 emissions and oil use are up 32 percent since 1990, cancelling out the progress made in other sectors. Policy should be focused on energy efficiency, not finding replacement energy sources to guzzle. Rather than set targets for production of specific alternative fuels, we need targets for reducing the \’\’carbon footprint\’\’ of transport fuels, which would let the fuel industry find the most cost effective way of reducing emissions while rewarding the biofuel industry for delivering carbon savings. Whether you believe in helping the environment or restoring the balance of power in the global energy market, more sustainable transport, less energy consumption, and lower CO2 emissions is a win-win strategy.

The figures speak for themselves: CO2 emissions and oil use are up 32 percent since 1990. This rise cancels out the progress made in other sectors (reductions of around 10 percent) and jeopardises the achievement of our Kyoto targets. The EU goal of reducing emissions by 20-30 percent by 2020, agreed earlier last year, looks further off than ever.

The problems don’t end there. The EU imports around 300 billion euros of oil every year, much of it from unstable regions, and two-thirds of it is guzzled by the transport sector.

A good first step towards tackling this problem is to set meaningful fuel efficiency standards for new cars. On December 19,2007, the EU Commission finally published its proposals for reducing CO2 emissions for new passenger cars. However, rather than raise the bar they actually weaken a long-standing target set in 1994 by then German environment minister Angela Merkel. The new target proposed is 130 g/km by 2012 — ten grams weaker and seven years later than the original goal.

The fuel efficiency target should be far higher than this 19 percent increase: it should be doubled within the next decade with stricter standards beyond: 80 g/km in 2020 and 60 g/km in 2025.

Another major failure of this proposal is that the standards for individual car models will be based on the weight of the car, with heavier cars subject to far more lenient standards. This is astoundingly counterproductive, as making cars lighter is one of the most effective means of boosting fuel efficiency.

Policy should be focused on energy efficiency, not finding replacement energy sources to guzzle. The serious questions now being raised about the sustainability and overall desirability of biofuels clearly indicate that ‘alternative’ energy is not synonymous with ‘clean’ energy. Rather than set targets for production of specific alternative fuels, we need targets for reducing the ”carbon footprint” of transport fuels, which would let the fuel industry find the most cost effective way of reducing overall carbon emissions while rewarding the biofuel industry for delivering carbon savings instead of sheer quantity regardless of sustainability.

For all the brouhaha about biofuels, it is little known that Europe is on the brink of introducing legislation on the carbon footprint of transport fuels. The European Parliament’s Environment Committee voted in November on the Fuel Quality Directive, which sets a low- carbon fuel standard. Environment ministers also appear to be positive about the principle.

For decades the debate on sustainable transport has omitted aviation and shipping, emissions from which have risen by 90 and 50 percent respectively since 1990. Now the EU is starting to pay attention. For aviation, the Parliament recently voted to strengthen the Commission’s proposal to include the sector in the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). But on 20 December 2007, environment ministers reached a political agreement that differs only in details from the Commission proposal. In 2008 we will see a final agreement in Europe. Then the challenge will be making other countries’ airlines participate in the scheme.

Aviation’s rapid growth can be largely attributed to unjust pricing. It is bizarre that there is still no tax on aviation fuel in Europe, which makes short haul flights look even more attractive than taking the car. Car drivers and train and bus passengers pay fuel taxes, whereas those that fly do not. Equally strange is the fact that there is no value-added tax charged on airline tickets.

Environmental policy is still far too often presented as anti-competitive. It isn’t. All environmental policies in transport can be implemented without serious economic distortions. For example, efficiency rules for new cars will apply to all cars sold in Europe, not just cars produced there.

Similarly, all fuels sold in Europe, not just those produced there, will have to comply with low carbon fuel standards, which eliminates the incentive to move refinery operations outside the continent. The same logic applies to aviation: all flights from, to, and within Europe will be included in the emissions trading system, not just those by European carriers.

Policymakers tend to forget that fuel efficiency standards will ultimately create a large and lasting market for fuel-saving technologies developed by Europe’s world-leading automotive industry and boost the market for shiny new Airbus aircraft and innovative retrofitted fuel-saving technology.

Many policymakers are caught in an odd contradiction. In the morning they fret about record high oil prices and the growing power of major energy-producing nations to push Europe around, yet in the afternoon they vote to weaken measures to increase fuel efficiency. Europe can shift the balance of power simply by reducing energy demand – which would have a massive impact on energy prices.

I’m convinced that strong environmental policies in transport will enable European firms to take the lead in technology development and help address many of today’s geopolitical tensions. Whether you believe in helping the environment or restoring the balance of power in the global energy market, more sustainable transport, less energy consumption, and lower CO2 emissions is a win-win strategy. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

 
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