Transport and Climate * Germany - On the Road to Nowhere?

Study: Transportation is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases. See how different modes of transportation are affecting the climate, and how they could become more sustainable

Munich,Germany -Allianz Knowledge Partnersite, by Thilo Kunzemann -September 25, 2008: -- Planes, trains and automobiles are more than just means of transportation. They are necessities of any advanced economy. They also symbolize a way of life. Unfortunately, this freedom to go wherever we wish and get things from wherever we want is 95-percent reliant on burning oil... According to the UN, the transport sector emits about 13 percent of global man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Over the past decade, GHG emissions from transportation have increased faster than those from any other sector, while CO2 emissions from transport are projected to be about 80-percent higher than current levels by 2030. Not all forms of transportation are equally carbon-intensive, but in almost all cases skyrocketing demand has outpaced the development of cleaner, greener vehicles... With high oil prices, consumers and governments may force the transport sector to become more fuel-efficient and explore alternative fuels. Even road traffic, undoubtedly the most widespread form of transportation, has the potential to drastically reduce its carbon footprint... Some of the examples that follow show that a mobile society does not necessarily lead to an environmental dead end. Lifestyles can change. In a few years, gas-guzzling SUVs might be ridiculed as modern dinosaurs, while electric cars symbolize real freedom... Between 600 and 700 million cars, trucks, and buses worldwide produce about three quarters of all greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. The United States has about 30 percent of the world’s automobiles, and contributes 45 percent of the world’s automotive CO2 emissions, but car production in places like China, India, and Brazil is catching up fast... Cars sold in the EU in 2004 emitted about 12 percent less fossil fuels than in 1995. The European Commission has proposed legislation that would reduce the average emissions of CO2 from new cars further from around 160 to 130 grams per kilometer by 2012. Hybrid-electric engines or plug-in electric cars could lower the average even further... Immediate emissions reductions, however, only result from changing consumer behavior. One key factor is the price at the pump. In June 2008, driving in the United States dropped by 4.7 percent. In the face of record gasoline prices, Americans drove about 12.2 billion miles less... (Picture: Reuters - An Albanian man tows his trashed car back home with a horse cart. This car has a perfect carbon footprint, but there are also other ways to make transportation more sustainable)


* European truckmakers pledge to cut fuel consumption

Hanover,Germany -Business, by Bruce Meng -25 September 2008: -- European truckmakers pledged on Tuesday to reduce fuel consumption by 2020 in line with a European Union objective, but called on legislators not to oppose the industry’s own attempts to cut emissions... "The commercial vehicles industry has united behind the ‘Vision 20-20′: We will further decrease the consumption of modern trucks by on average 20 percent per tonne/kilometer by the year 2020", Daimler Trucks chief Andreas Renschler said... Speaking as commercial vehicles head of Brussels-based industry association ACEA, the Daimler executive said he appreciated an offer from the European Commission to discuss future regulations in a fair and cooperative manner... European truckmakers support an integrated approach that would shift some responsibility onto the oil industry, hauliers, truck operators and even the drivers, since the way a truck is driven can reduce fuel consumption by 10 percent on its own... Renschler said the truck industry remains the backbone of the global economy, carrying nearly 80 percent of freight in industrialised countries and directly employing 250,000 people in Europe alone...