U.N. official says transport ministers move too slowly on climate
Posted on May 30th, 2008Special to ClimateWire
LEIPZIG, Germany — Participants at a major conference on transport and climate change were strongly challenged yesterday by the United Nations’ top climate change official to act more forcefully to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The question is whether you, as transport stakeholders, are willing to proactively shape the Copenhagen deal or have your policies shaped by it,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, referring to the 2009 meeting where a successor to the Kyoto Protocol will be debated. DeBoer told the transport ministers and industry officials that political action in their industry “is woefully inadequate.”
“New technologies will certainly be part of the answer. But we simply cannot afford to wait for ’silver bullet’ solutions which may be commercially available in the future,” he added.
De Boer spoke on day two of the annual meeting of the International Transport Forum (ITF) — an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development inter-governmental body — under way in Leipzig, Germany. Yesterday, the conference also heard from German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The day ended with a meeting of transport ministers from 51 countries.
According to UNFCCC, greenhouse gas emissions arising from transport increased by 17.5 percent from 1990 to 2005 in industrialized countries. This growth is expected to continue, with a 30.5 percent increase from 1990 to 2010. UNFCCC says this is the highest of all recorded increases in sectoral emissions. Moreover, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an 80 percent hike in global emissions from transport is expected by 2030.
“All current trends in transport fly in the face of what science tells us is needed,” said de Boer. “Developed countries now need to start thinking hard about what short- and medium-term sectoral emission reductions they want to commit to in the transport sector, along with what interim targets they want to build in on the way.”
During the high-level panel discussion following de Boer’s forceful statement, politicians and industrialists agreed that the key to the problem is political will. “As politicians, we must set tight targets: We are responsible for changing our lifestyle and consumption patterns in the richest parts of the world,” said Liv Signe Navarsete, Norway’s minister of transport. “Do we really need to transport food worldwide? Should we not try instead to enable each country to produce its own food? New technologies, new types of fuels are important, but it is up to us politicians to take measures which might be unpopular in the short term, but are necessary in the long run.”
The Dutch prepare road-use charges
Solutions can also be relatively neutral, as Dutch Minister of Transport Camiel Eurlings explained. The Netherlands is working on a system of road-use charges, varying per vehicle according to weight, fuel consumption and distance traveled. The total of taxes levied on all road users will remain unchanged, but distribution will vary. Government revenue will not increase. Those who drive frequently will pay more, and those who drive little will pay less.
“We should ensure that politicians never use the environment as an excuse to increase taxes and then use the proceeds for something else [other than environmental protection],” Eurlings said. “With our mileage tax concept, the government will levy no extra taxes: At the end of the day, this will help build public support for this system.” The Netherlands, he added, has started negotiating with France to develop a joint mileage-based tax program.
During her speech following the panel discussion, Chancellor Merkel did not wax enthusiastic for some aspects of the system promoted by the Dutch. “Can I ask people driving older cars to pay more?” she asked, adding that biofuels would raise similar questions, since such fuels would be incompatible with older models, which presumably are owned by people who do not have the means to change cars often.
On airline issues, Europe’s politicians move ‘at a snail’s pace’
Although Merkel, a former environment minister, believes industrialized countries must lead the way in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a mission she sees as a “moral imperative,” she prefers market incentives to more regulations. “Must we regulate everything from boilers to the chemical industry?” asked the conservative prime minister. “I prefer to rely on markets, such as a carbon-exchange market.” Merkel also wants to promote the longstanding “Single European Sky” project — never implemented to date — aimed at standardizing and consolidating European air traffic control to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft.
Thomas Enders, Airbus’ chief executive and a fellow German, fully agreed. “Europe’s air transportation management system is very inefficient, very fragmented,” he deplored. “If a Single European Sky were in place, we would reduce CO2 emissions per flight by 10 percent,” he added, explaining that airplanes consume huge amounts of kerosene when in holding patterns. “Why are politicians unable to solve this problem? There have been initiatives, but these are proceeding at a snail’s pace.”
Enders’ comments echo similar remarks made in the past by executives at Lufthansa, the German airline, who argue that such a measure would lower carbon emissions by 8 to 12 percent immediately. The Germans see the United States as an example to follow in this area; they argue in favor of standardizing European traffic control in Europe along the lines of the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration. The Germans, including Merkel, regret that although the European integrated system functions well on the ground, thanks to the Schengen Agreement, it “stops working 1 meter above street level,” as one German executive put it.
Otherwise, panel members were unanimous in saying that the present oil crisis should be viewed as a problem of demand more than supply. “As for oil, we need to think more about the demand side of the equation,” said Nobuo Tanaka, IEA’s executive director. “Until now, we’ve focused too much on supply. In the short term, we recommend an increase in energy efficiency, using eco-driving, better tires, and so forth. In the longer run, transport should move to carbon-free systems.”
In showrooms, leather seats and fancy stereos still beat ‘green’ models
For his part, Thierry Morin, CEO of Valeo, a leading French automobile supplier, stressed that technology is not the problem in the automobile sector: Technical solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are often available. The obstacles are more financial and psychological. “Asked to choose between a green car costing €2,000 more than a conventional one with a great stereo system and leather seats, a family with teenagers will choose the latter,” he said.
Cars, Morin added, produce hefty amounts of CO2 emissions when idling — at red lights, for instance. This problem can easily be solved by using “stop/start” systems, which switch off automatically when the vehicle comes to a standstill and restart the engine instantly and silently as soon as the driver releases the brake pedal or accelerates. Component makers like Bosch and Valeo have been installing these systems in a number of European car models.
Morin claims that such devices reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions substantially, and that their cost to the consumer is low (”a few hundred euros”). He adds that drivers are generally reluctant to use them, however, because this would mean changing old driving habits.