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  • Road interests launch Green Freight initiative

    An alliance of road freight interests has launched ‘Green Freight Europe’, aimed at working out a reliable method of measuring emissions from lorries. The group of hauliers, transport logistics firms and companies that use lorries to transport goods set out its scheme last month in the presence of the EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas.

    Estimates of today’s fuel efficiency of lorries vary widely. T&E deputy director Nina Renshaw, who also attended the launch, said: ‘Existing data measuring emissions from lorries give a very varied picture, so it’s good that an improved system is being trialled, and I’m reassured that it will be monitored by an independent energy trust. If it helps to develop a more reliable picture of lorry emissions and is expanded, as promised, to include rail and waterway freight transport, it will be a useful contribution to fighting climate change. But standards for lorry CO2 emissions will still be needed, to ensure all hauliers can benefit from more fuel-efficient vehicles in the near future.’