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2014 annual report

Transport & Environment

Foreword from our President

25 years on and the future of mobility is electrified and shared (we think)

At the time of preparing this review of Transport & Environment’s work in 2014, we are getting ready to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Perhaps it’s a little too early to crack open the champagne. Therefore I will try to connect last year’s events to a longer historical timeline. Like everything else in life, there were Groundhog Day moments, but also instances of real progress.

Let’s start with the most pertinent question: have we been successful in saving the world and cleaning up transport? The honest answer is no, we have not. Fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions are up 25% since 1990, and we have a hell of a lot of trucks, planes and automobiles that are not much better, or better used, than 25 years ago.

But that does not mean we should be gloomy about what T&E has done and achieved. Many of the views we had developed 20 years ago were not conventional at the time, let alone put into action, but have now become quite mainstream. In turn, this ‘consistent persistence’, amplified by excellent media work and coordination with members, has made T&E almost a household name, in Brussels circles at least.

Let’s start with a very early T&E paper, from 1992, entitled ‘Making fuel go further’, which made the case for binding fuel efficiency standards for cars. Some 17 years later, Europe finally got them, doing the right thing after having tried everything else, including an official voluntary agreement. We spent much of 2014 trying to ensure that those standards, and those relating to air pollution, not only be met in the laboratory, but also on the road. We have been highlighting this testing issue since as early as 1995. In 2014 we made progress; the next annual report will tell you exactly how much.

Then the issue of biofuels where, in 2014, Europe made further steps to correct its mistakes. More precisely, it kept debating how to reverse the wrongheaded idea to source almost 10% of transport fuel from first-generation biofuels. Twenty years ago we already issued a report that said using bioenergy in transport is an inefficient use of resources. And over the past six years we have very much turned up the volume of that message, with considerable success. But some lessons are apparently harder learned than others.

We seem to have a knack for taking on difficult fights; look at pricing carbon emitted by aviation. We started this fight in 1995 and 2014 saw the latest twist with Europe cutting back on the amount of flights it includes in its emissions trading system. But it’s still there, and we will do everything to ensure it stays that way, is strengthened, and complemented with other measures.

2014 was an important year for shipping too, with Europe agreeing a law on ‘monitoring, reporting and verification’. In plain English: rules that require transparency on ships’ efficiency so we know better which shipyards and shipowners perform best. Evolution not revolution, to be sure, although the fierce and negative industry lobby suggests otherwise.

Talking of negative industry lobbying, the resistance of the truck industry to voluntary rules allowing them to make their cabins longer, safer and more streamlined remains difficult to understand. We started this fight in 2011 and thought it would be such an obvious win/win for everyone that it would be plain sailing. We were wrong. But the better trucks will come.

Despite all this, in a way 2014 was a transition year towards a new five-year policymaking cycle, with a focus on 2030, not 2020. T&E will be 40 by then; I really hope, and in a way I expect, transport will be cleaner, smarter and shared, and more electric – be it bikes, rail or cars. We will be there to make it happen. It has to, it will, and we can.

João Vieira, President
signature Joao Vieira

Our Numbers

60

Press releases

2695

Online articles

639 M

Potential Readership

88

Countries

33

Languages

2

Media enquiries / day

82250

Unique Web visitors

27

Tv & Radio interviews

203

Press interviews

4006

T&E bulletin readers

725 K

Twitter Impressions

2330

Followers

9

Campaigns

44

Publications

35

Opinion pieces

13

T&E events

640

Events attendees

70

Speaking opportunities

Our funders

T&E gratefully acknowledges funding support from the following institutions in 2014

Our Resources

Income

€ 1,620,040

Governments

€ 1,098,562

Private - Foundations

€ 297,866

EC Grants

€ 20,400

Membership fees

€ 13,642

Other misc. Income

€ 4,543

Financial Income

Expenditure

€ 1,159,856

Personnel

€ 1,159,801

Subcontracting

€ 242,938

Office costs

€ 226,290

Research and consultancy

€ 128,793

Travel and Subsistence

€ 33,430

Transfer to T&E members

€ 30,461

Depreciation and provisions

€ 2,505

Financial costs

You can find detailed figures for our funding sources in our submission to the EU Transparency Register: http://bit.ly/zxguot

Our People

Policy Team

Jos Dings

Director

Greg Archer

Programme Manager - Clean Vehicles

Bill Hemmings

Programme Manager - Aviation & Shipping

Nusa Urbancic

Programme Manager - Energy

Magnus Nilsson

Senior Campaigner

Malcolm Fergusson

Senior Policy Consultant

William Todts

Senior Policy Officer

Cécile Toubeau

Policy Officer

Laura Buffet

Policy Officer

Pietro Caloprisco

Policy Officer

Andrew Murphy

Policy Officer

Sotiris Raptis

Policy Officer

François Cuenot

Policy Officer

Carlos Calvo Ambel

Policy Analyst

Julia Hildermeier

Policy Officer

Communications Team

Nico Muzi

Communications Manager

Eoin Bannon

Communications Officer

Chris Bowers

T&E Bulletin Editor

Finance And Office Management Team

Marc Schuurmans

Finance Manager

Aisling Henrard

Secretary

Our Board

João Vieira

President

Philippa Edmunds

Vice-President

Pierre Courbe

Vice-President

Michael Müller-Görnert

Treasurer

Caroline Beglinger

Angel Aparicio

Christian Nobel

James Nix

Sven Hunhammar

Jean Thévenon

Our Members

41 members in 26 countries



United Nations

T&E is recognised as an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. T&E coordinates the International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation (ICSA), which has observer status at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and is a founding member of the Clean Shipping Coalition which has observer status at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

Green 10

T&E works as a partner in the Green10, an informal group of environmental NGOs active at EU-level which includes Birdlife International, CEE Bankwatch Network, Climate Action Network Europe, European Environment Bureau, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace, Health and Environment Alliance, International Friends of Nature and WWF. www.green10.org

ECOS and Green Budget Europe

T&E staff sits on the boards of ECOS, European Environmental Citizens’ Organisation for Standardisation, and Green Budget Europe, a newly established NGO platform that aims to promote environmental fiscal reform at the EU level.

Our Mission

Europe's leading NGO campaigning for sustainable transport

Our mission

Promote, at EU and global level, a transport policy based on the principles of sustainable development. Transport policy should minimise harmful impacts on the environment and health, maximise efficiency of resources, including energy and land, and guarantee safety and sufficient access for all.

Our focus

Our work is focused on the areas where European and global policies have the potential to achieve the greatest environmental benefits. These include transport pricing so that polluters, not society, pay for pollution, setting standards for the cleanest possible cars, vans, lorries, ships, planes, and fuels, and greening EU investment in transport.

Our work

We have contributed to a number of high-profile EU policy changes such as binding standards for more fuel efficient cars and vans and more sustainable biofuels; inclusion of aviation in the EU ETS, introduction of green tyre labels, and smarter EU rules on the way lorries can be charged and designed.

Our assets

Credibility is our key asset. Therefore we are non-profit and politically independent, and we are strong believers in the power of science and evidence in policymaking. We commission and execute numerous pieces of cutting-edge policy research to shape and underpin our views.

Our network

Established in 1990, T&E represents 46 organisations from 26 countries across Europe, mostly environmental groups and campaigners working for sustainable transport policies at national, regional and local level. We add value through the sharing of knowledge, ideas and networks.

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