Experts from all over the world have gathered in Paris to take forward an environmental policy for the automotive sector.
A new roadmap to reduce CO2 emissions and promote fuel economy in the automotive sector has emerged during a high level symposium hosted by the FIA Foundation together with three major international organisations.
Experts from governments, academia and the private sector discussed a range of policy proposals for a new global fuel economy agenda which they hope will be taken forward at Ministerial level in the coming months. Leading the discussions at the symposium were three major global bodies - the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka pledged to take a range of recommendations to this yearís G8 summit. He said:
"CO2 emissions are unsustainable and the question is how can we cut out CO2? The aim must be to cut vehicle energy intensity by 50 per cent by 2030 - a challenging but achievable solution with the right international framework in place."
ITF Secretary General Jack Short echoed Mr Tanakaís warnings of the unsustainability of current energy projections. "We have argued for a long time that a principle of cost effectiveness should be applied to any solutions, and that a global fuel economy framework would need much careful planning and scrutiny." He said that he would feed key points through to the Transport Ministersí Summit in Leipzig at the end of May.
Sylvie Lennard Director of the UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics said that any fuel economy policies need to take developing countries into consideration. She recommended a new model set out along the lines of UNEPís Partnership for Cleaner Fuels and Vehicles, of which the FIA Foundation is a founder member. ìI would push for a public-private initiative at global level bringing in OECD and non-OECD countries,î she said. Lennard was critical of the status quo where key transportation questions have been left out of major environmental initiatives including the Clean Development Mechanism and the UNís Global Environment Facility.
FIA Foundation Director General David Ward outlined a series of next steps to achieve a global 50 per cent reduction in automotive fuel economy. Key measures would include an exchange of best practice to promote automotive fuel economy, an integration of the issue of fuel economy into the existing effort to reduce vehicle emissions and improve air quality and an exploration of the potential of an automotive sector contribution to post-2012 Kyoto climate change strategy.
Ward said: "With the rapid expansion in the world motor vehicle fleet, and the growing concerns of climate change, oil supply and fossil fuel consumption, automotive fuel economy questions must rise up the global policy agenda."
