Governments plan radical steps to curb traffic growth

Date: 30/09/1999

By Gareth Harding

EU TRANSPORT ministers are next week expected to sign up to the most radical strategy ever devised by the Union for curbing the environmental damage caused by traffic growth.

They are set to approve a hard-hitting report drawn up by the Finnish presidency which warns that current trends in road and air traffic growth are unsustainable and threaten to blow a hole in the EU's climate change goals.

For the first time, ministers will call for sector-specific targets to reduce the environmental impact of all forms of transport and for the European Commission to draw up EU-wide policies and measures to meet these objectives by 2002.

In a move which is likely to alarm car-makers, they will also call for further measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. Last year, European car manufacturers signed an agreement to cut C02 emissions by 25% to achieve an average level of 140 grams per kilometre by 2008.

But the report to be discussed by transport ministers next Wednesday (6 October) says this may not be enough and that further measures may be needed to reach the EU's long-term target of 120g/km by 2010.

In the past, transport ministers have been reluctant to propose far-reaching measures to curb traffic growth, because of the political sensitivity of the subject.

But with the transport sector already accounting for more than a quarter of the EU's carbon emissions and road traffic expected to increase by almost 40% over the next decade, there is a growing realisation that the Union is in danger of missing the legally-binding targets it signed up to at the 1997 Kyoto conference on climate change.

"There is a huge gap between the Kyoto commitments and the forecast for the growth of transport emissions," states the report on integrating environmental concerns into transport policy.

In order to reduce the negative impact of traffic growth, the report calls on the European Commission constantly to improve emission and fuel standards for all forms of transport, including aeroplanes, ships, trains and 'off-road' machines such as tractors.

In addition to proposing traditional 'end-of-pipe' solutions to rising vehicle emissions, the paper also calls for measures to reduce the need for travel in the first place. It urges member states to devise a traffic and parking policy to discourage the use of cars in cities and for all major building projects, including the Trans-European Networks, to be vetted for their impact on traffic growth.

The paper also underlines the role which could be played by economic instruments, such as road pricing and a tax on kerosene, in ensuring fair and efficient pricing of all forms of transport. In addition, it recommends that at least part of the revenue from such schemes should be ring-fenced to ensure the money is spent on avoiding or repairing environmental damage caused by traffic.

The recently appointed European Commission will welcome the paper's emphasis on promoting public transport in both the EU and in the central and east European countries bidding for EU membership.

Last week, after Commission President Romano Prodi and his environment supremo Margot Wallstrom cycled to the EU executive's weekly meeting on European 'car free day', Wallstrom said the gesture was intended to "underline the commitment of the Commission to fight the damage of unbridled car use in urban areas"

Environmental groups have also given the paper a guarded welcome. Beatrice Schell, director of the European Federation for Transport and Environment, said it used the right language and pushed all the right buttons. But she added: "The question is, will any of this be put into practice?"

Assuming transport ministers approve the report next week, as expected, it will then be endorsed by EU leaders at their December summit in Helsinki.

EU transport ministers are expected to sign up to the most radical strategy ever devised by the European Union for curbing the environmental damage caused by traffic growth. They are set to approve a hard-hitting report drawn up by the Finnish Presidency which warns that current trends in road and air traffic growth are unsustainable and threaten to blow a hole in the EU's climate change goals.