First steps down the road towards cleaner air

Date: 21/01/1999

By Gareth Harding

IT IS not often that praise is heaped on EU decision-makers for taking courageous decisions in the field of transport and environment, but if Europe's city-dwellers find themselves breathing cleaner air in years to come, they will have Brussels legislators to thank.

Over the past year, major new laws have been passed which aim to cut vehicle emissions, tackle the increase in road transport and improve the quality of air in Europe's towns and cities.

In June, the EU rounded off two years of institutional wrangling and three years of talks with industry by approving the biggest-ever package of measures to cut pollution from cars and vans in the Union's history. Known as the 'Auto-Oil' programme, the new standards are expected to halve emissions from diesel-run vehicles by 2000 and lead to a 30-40% cut in emissions from petrol engines by the same date.

In the face of fierce opposition from industry and some member states, the deal struck by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament will also slash sulphur in petrol to a mere 10% of its present level by 2005 and cut emissions of deadly smoke particulates to a minimum.

The Auto-Oil package will play a key role in helping member states meet ambitious new air quality standards agreed by environment ministers earlier in the year.

But it will do nothing to stem the alarming rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars and lorries which is threatening to blow a hole in the EU's climate change commitments.

Due largely to rampant traffic growth, CO2 emissions from the transport sector grew by 37% between 1985 and 1995. And while the sector currently accounts for only one quarter of the EU's total emissions, this is expected to rise to nearly 40% by 2010.

In a policy paper on transport and CO2 issued last year, the European Commission warned that, if allowed to continue unchecked, such growth in emissions would make it "extremely difficult" for the bloc to meet its reduction target signed up to in Kyoto in 1997.

However, by implementing a range of measures already proposed or in the pipeline, the Commission estimates that member states could cut carbon emissions by one quarter compared to expected levels in 2010.

The EU's executive body is banking on its voluntary agreement with the car industry to achieve the bulk of this reduction.

Faced with the threat of legislation, European car manufacturers last year signed up to a 25% cut in CO2 emissions by 2008, and officials are now pressing Japanese and Korean producers to agree to a similar deal.

Aside from technical measures, the Commission believes that transport missions can be cut by making users pay the full costs of their journeys, by promoting public transport and better integrating the various modes of passenger and freight traffic.

However, national governments have been reluctant to take on board the Commission's proposals, leaving a yawning gap between the EU's environmental goals and its means for achieving them.

In its latest tome on the state of the continent's environment, the European Environment Agency (EEA) bluntly states that "in the transport sector more than any other, environmental policies are failing to keep up with the pace of growth". The result of this, says the EEA, is congestion, air and noise pollution and increased environmental damage in the urban areas where 80% of EU citizens live.

Despite recent improvements in the air quality of most European cities, millions of town-dwellers are still exposed to levels of pollution well above Union guidelines. According to the EEA, two-thirds of Europe's population also live with high environmental noise levels.

Green groups argue that, in the long term, the environmental impact of transport can only be lessened by tackling the dramatic rise in road traffic.

But as the Commission does not have the power to stem this growth and member states do not appear to have the political will to do so, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's claim that "the car is the curse of the 20th century" is likely to be as valid in the 21st.

Part of a European Voice survey on transport.