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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Phase out vegetable oils biofuels by 2020, environment MEPs tell Commission
The environment committee of the European Parliament today adopted a resolution urging the European Commission to phase out the use of vegetable oils for biofuels, preferably by 2020. All political groups agreed on the need to stop incentives to biofuels that cause deforestation and peatland drainage, which includes a range of feedstocks such as palm oil, soy and rapeseed, The resolution was on an own-initiative report on palm oil and deforestation.
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.
IPCC report puts extra pressure on EU ministers to cut car and aviation emissions
Today the world’s leading climate change scientists were crystal clear: transport needs to drastically reduce and eventually eliminate its emissions as soon as possible for the world to stand a chance to limit global warming to 1.5°C and avoid catastrophic climate change. The special report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stresses the urgency of strong action across all transport modes. European NGO federation Transport & Environment (T&E) warns that transport is Europe’s biggest climate problem where carbon emissions are growing faster than in any other sector.
Only 5 percent of EV charging happens at public charging points
Despite the perception that public recharging is a major barrier to the mass uptake of electric vehicles (EV), public chargers are only used for about 5% of charging events, including on-street city charging, car parks and fast charging along road corridors. The data compiled in various studies to date shows that the vast majority of EV charging happens at home or work and it is a lack of choice and availability of electric cars that is the principal barrier.
Record surge in renewable energy
The rapid growth of renewable energy has reached a new milestone, with renewable sources contributing more than two-thirds of new power added to the world’s electricity supply in 2016. The figures come from the International Energy Agency, whose director described them as ‘the birth of a new era in solar photovoltaics’.
Electro-mobility and alternative fuels central to ‘energy union’ agenda
Further decarbonisation of transport through a shift to alternative fuels and electro-mobility forms a major part of the European Commission’s strategy for an ‘energy union’, unveiled last week. With transport being responsible for more than 30% of EU energy consumption and a quarter of emissions, the Commission said legislation on ‘decarbonising the transport sector, including an action plan on alternative fuels’ would be put forward in 2017.
EU agrees modest climate goals for 2030, but the devil is in the details
EU heads of state today agreed three modest climate and green energy targets for 2030 [1], which lack the ambition needed to put Europe on track to meet its own 2050 climate commitments [2] and will not do enough to cut dependence on fossil fuels. Sustainable transport group Transport & Environment (T&E) says that now targets have been agreed, all eyes should turn towards implementation: the means and policies to achieve these 2030 targets can still make a big difference for the climate and the transition to a low-carbon economy where transport is crucial.
The Little Book of Biofuels
Did you know that every car in Europe uses a blend of biofuels? This is because of EU law. And to meet this demand, global production of biofuels has skyrocketed. You may think ‘bio’ means biofuels are always good for the planet. But because biofuels are derived from plant products, any increase in their use has a direct impact on agriculture worldwide. That means more deforestation to make way for new agricultural land, releasing the stored-up carbon of rainforests into the air and driving up global food prices. Co-produced by T&E, BirdLife Europe, and the European Environmental Bureau, The Little Book of Biofuels explains this Butterfly Effect of Europe’s biofuels policy and how we can end it.