Infrastructure changes point the way for transport sector’s difficult journey

Date: 01/08/02

By Michele Barsanti

THE transport sector is facing one of the biggest challenges ahead in relation to sustainable development.

The environmental impact of transport is easily identifiable. We all have to deal with traffic congestion, high levels of noise exposure, pollution and ozone alerts on a regular basis. For this reason, quantifying and addressing the external costs of transport activities now feature high on the agenda of the Commission and of the member states.

So far, authorities have functioned by reacting to public or industry pressure basing that reaction on traditional beliefs, thus failing to recognise two important factors: a growing economy causes a growing demand for transport; and achieving 'sustainable transport' requires actions at different levels (local, regional, national or international), depending on the specific problem to be addressed.

Transport and the economy .

In the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, transport represents around 4-8 of GDP and 2-4 of employment. These figures do not take into consideration the key role transport plays in all developed economies and its influence on indirect job creation.

It is difficult to envisage economic growth without an increase in transport: even the recent EU White Paper on transport implicitly recognised this element, postponing a possible de-linking of transport and economic growth to a period after 2010 - in effect, indefinitely.

Of course, even if transport is to grow alongside our economies, several initiatives could be taken to address the negative impact of this activity.

This has already been tried, with mixed results: successfully in the car sector (today it takes 100 cars to produce the same level of pollution of a single 1970s car); less so in the aviation sector, where the growth in demand has outweighed the increased energy efficiency, with an overall increase in CO2 emissions.

Different approaches.

When defining measures aimed at making transport more sustainable, policymakers should take into consideration the enormous differences in approach required depending on the area of intervention.

For instance, if action is needed to improve air quality or traffic congestion in Milan, then local politicians and administrators are the best-placed to adopt effective measures (road tolls, car-free city centres, increase in public transport, to name a few examples).

The only support a local authority should require from the EU are good emission standards for cars, good measurement techniques (which has not yet been done for all pollutants) and a framework procedure to adopt local measures that would limit distortion of competition between member states.

However, if the objective is to reduce the negative effects of the mixture of gases and water vapour at high levels caused by airplanes, then a piecemeal approach (regional, national and even continental) will not bring the expected results without generating a series of new problems such as trade disputes and competition distortions. A global approach is the only real way to answer the challenge.

The need for a realistic approach.

Today, governments and institutions seem to have replaced reality checks and pragmatic decisions with a doctrinal approach. Too often, they fail to act.

An example: politicians of all creeds have been referring to the need to encourage travellers to use trains rather than travel by car or by plane. But to achieve this the rail sector offer needs to be further developed.

However, so far we have not seen major budget allocation to the building of new transport infrastructures.

This situation will worsen with enlargement: it is doubtful that our future Polish MEPs will be able to go from Warsaw to Brussels or Strasbourg on high-speed trains.

The next steps: infrastructure charging.

In the autumn, the Commission will unveil its proposal on transport infrastructure charging.

The objective is to ensure that transport users pay for all costs associated to the transport mode they choose.

The main problem will be how these external costs (social, environmental, medical) will be quantified, whether a methodology can be developed for all forms of transport, and to what extent geographical and social differences among member states will be considered.

Nobody questions the need for such a proposal: it is simply a matter of ensuring that the price for using certain transport modes reflects the costs generated.

But if the objective of sustainable development is to protect future generations, surely nurturing and fostering of a sustainable transport infrastructure is key.

Otherwise the result would simply be an increase in price for users and yet another burden on our already fragile economies.

• Michele Barsanti is head of the transport & energy practice group, Hill and Knowlton

Feature on the challenges facing the transport sector in relation to sustainable development. Article is part of a European Voice survey on sustainable development.