Electric vehicles: the truth
This paper presents evidence to dispel many of the myths about electric vehicles and explains why they are key to reducing CO2 emissions from personal mobility.
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Does sharing cars really reduce car use?
The average car sits unused for more than 90% of the time, carries on average just one and a half people and costs, on average, €6,500 a year to own and run. Each car occupies 150m2 of urban land and still this is not the full bill – congestion costs the EU economy €100 billion annually. The convenience that made the car a 20th century icon has been eroded by its popularity.
Clean transport NGO names new Executive Director
The Board of sustainable transport group Transport & Environment (T&E) has today announced William Todts as its new Executive Director. He succeeds Jos Dings, who this week leaves the position after 13 years.
MEPs want shipping included in 2030 emissions target through ETS ‘climate fund’
A proposal to include emissions from shipping in the EU’s 2030 emissions reduction target through the EU emissions trading system (ETS) has gained cross-party support among MEPs. The amendment calls for shipowners to buy ETS allowances from 2021 onwards or pay an equivalent amount into a new climate fund that minimises administrative burden by buying allowances collectively on their behalf.
Will Ireland be next to close the diesel-petrol tax gap?
Ireland has moved a step closer to becoming the latest European nation to equalise taxation on petrol and diesel. A paper from an interdepartmental committee of the Irish government has proposed a way to wipe out the 22% tax advantage diesel currently enjoys over petrol. The paper justifies the move on air quality and climate change grounds.
Truckmakers fined record €2.93bn for running 14-year cartel on emissions technology
Europe’s largest truckmakers have been fined a record total of €2.93 billion in a settlement with the EU after they admitted to involvement in a 14-year price-fixing cartel. Iveco, DAF, Volvo/Renault, Daimler and MAN fixed prices and jointly agreed the pace of introduction for emission reduction technologies between 1997 and 2011, when the industry was working to comply with Euro air pollution standards III to VI.
Batteries on wheels: the role of battery electric cars in the EU power system and beyond
Batteries are the key technology enabling the decarbonisation of transport, and the value of the materials within them has resulted in the development of policies and regulations around battery reuse and recycling, with the European Commission looking to review its Battery Directive in 2020.
How a Belgian city is cutting rush-hour traffic
The Belgian city of Ghent has reported a 12% reduction in rush-hour traffic, and a 25% increase in cyclists in the first year of its new traffic plan. The findings were reported on the second anniversary of the Ghent Circulation Plan coming into force, and coincided with T&E’s member organisations spending a day in the city before their annual general meeting in Brussels.
The cities where the chances of dying from transport pollution are highest are all in… Europe
The urban areas with the highest number of deaths related to transport air pollution per 100,000 residents are European. The top 10 in 2015 were Milan, Turin, Stuttgart, Kiev, Cologne, Haarlem, Berlin, Rotterdam, London, and Leeds. That’s one of the striking facts of a report by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) that looked into how transport causes air pollution which then contributes to ill health.
EU agrees €7bn budget for greener transport infrastructure
EU governments and MEPs have agreed to spend €7 billion of the bloc’s transport infrastructure budget on more sustainable projects like electric vehicle re-charging points and upgrades to rail signalling. The projects will need to be co-financed by member states, meaning public spending on green transport infrastructure will be much higher. Transport & Environment (T&E) said that, as EU member states deliberate on a draft strategy to fully decarbonise European transport by 2050, last night’s deal on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) makes that target more achievable.