T&E Director Jos Dings writes in this week's European Voice: T&E does not believe that the 1999 UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) study on aviation and the global atmosphere is misleading ('No taxes, no emission reduction targets', 13-19 July) as your report suggested.
The European Commission should urgently set up a system of safeguards and a certification process to ensure biofuels used in Europe meet high environmental standards according to three environmental groups.
The European Parliament has taken a step that may accelerate efforts to tackle the environmental impact of air travel
The Commission has approved a revised Common Transport Policy (CTP) that contradicts the EU’s sustainable development strategy published just six days earlier. The juxtaposition of the two documents led T&E to describe the new CTP as “unsustainable and illegitimate”.
Greenhouse gases from Europe’s transport sector are preventing the EU from meeting its obligations under the Kyoto protocol.
The Netherlands and Portugal have this month introduced differentiations into their car registration taxes to encourage car buyers to opt for the cleanest models.
The Commission is threatening to take legal action against Spain and France over unfair discounts from road user charges.
The EU should aim to reduce overall fuel consumption by transport rather than promoting specific targets for use of biofuels according to T&E's response to a recent EU consultation on biofuels.
This one-day event, organised by Transport and Environment (T&E) and co-sponsored by the governments of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and Renault and Toyota, focussed on policies to speed up progress towards more fuel efficient cars in Europe.