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.
New electric bus orders will nearly double numbers of zero-emission models on the UK’s roads
The announcement of a further 263 new zero-emission buses orders, which will nearly double the number on the UK’s roads from the 329 currently in use, has been welcomed by sustainable transport group Transport & Environment. 19 bus operators will shift to using electric buses with the largest roll-outs set for London (63), Cardiff (36), and Manchester (32).
Transport costs Europe €1 trillion in pollution and congestion – and citizens, not polluters, pay the price
European transport is costing society over €1 trillion a year through air pollution, carbon emissions, congestion, accidents and other ‘external costs’, a major new study by the European Commission has found. And citizens rather than transport users are paying most of these costs – in violation of the ‘polluter pays’ principle. Green transport group Transport & Environment said that governments can fix this by shifting taxes away from citizens’ incomes and instead taxing the sources of pollution and congestion.
Ministers want to ring fence €7bn of EU funding for clean transport
Transport and energy ministers today backed plans to spend €7 billion of the EU’s transport infrastructure budget on more sustainable projects like electric vehicle re-charging points and upgrades to rail signalling. Sustainable transport group Transport & Environment (T&E) welcomed the ministers’ earmarking of part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for the period 2021-2027.
EU Parliament and member states must defend funding for clean transport
MEPs of the industry and transport committees voted this morning to reject plans to guarantee 40% of the EU’s transport infrastructure budget (some €12 billion) be spent on more sustainable projects like smart grids and charging stations. European NGO federation, Transport & Environment (T&E) is disappointed with this vote because it locks in considerable funds into fossil fuel powered transport. Thus T&E calls on all MEPs to reject this in December’s plenary vote.