Report: 'EU transport policies failing on climate'[fr][de] 

While emissions from most sectors, such as energy supply, industry and agriculture, dropped between 1990 and 2004 in the EU-15, greenhouse-gas emissions from transport rose by 26%, as the introduction of green technologies failed to keep up with the spiralling demand for transport, says a report by the European Environment Agency (EEA), published on 26 February 2007. 

Air transport volumes increased the most in that period (by 86%), but road transport is the biggest problem, as it accounts for 93% of greenhouse gas from transport. 

The study says that failure to internalise transport's external costs through pricing mechanisms and massive government transport subsidies, amounting to between €270 and €290 billion annually – of which at least half go towards roads – are largely to blame for the rapid growth in transport volumes. Furthermore, such policies also serve to direct transport choices towards less environmentally friendly modes. 

The report also highlights the effect that transport is having on our health. With nearly one quarter of the EU population living less than 500 meters from a road carrying more than three million vehicles per year, the EEA estimates that almost four million 'life-years' are lost annually because of high pollution levels. 

The EEA criticises the softening of the EU's policy on dealing with transport volumes. Professor Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the EEA, said: "The mid-term review [of the Transport White Paper] changes the focus from managing transport demand to addressing negative side-effects. This change in focus means that transport demand growth is no longer explicitly identified as one of the main environmental issues within the transport sector." 

She stressed: "We cannot deal with the increasing GHG emissions, noise pollution and landscape fragmentation caused by transport without dealing with the increasing traffic across the spectrum...Technical advances, such as cleaner, more fuel-efficient engines are very important but we cannot innovate our way out of the emissions problem from transport." 

UITP-EuroTeam Director Brigitte Ollier agreed: "We need to reduce the volume of traffic. Technology alone cannot provide a solution, we have to change people's behaviour too," she said, suggesting that the EU should set non-binding targets for all member states, to reduce car traffic by 1% annually over the next five years. 

However, the International Road Transport Union (IRU)  believes that investing in new road infrastructure is part of the solution: "Limited infrastructure causes traffic jams with growing aggravation…Clearing bottlenecks, building new infrastructure and making existing road systems work more efficiently helps reduce the environmental impact of city roads." 

The European Road Federation (ERF) said: "There is no reason to expect CO2 emissions to decrease at the same rate in all sectors." It underlined that, according to the Stern Eeport, the economic cost of CO2 reduction would be minimised with a tax of about €20-25 per tonne of CO2 and adds: "The specific taxes already paid by the road transportation sector in most European countries represent about ten times the amount. Road transport, therefore, is spearheading the battle for CO2 reduction and if its lead were followed by all other sectors of the economy then CO2 emissions would be under control." 

Green NGO Transport and Environment (T&E) underlines the fact that "if transport emissions had not increased since 1990 but rather stabilised, the overall reduction of GHG in the EU-25 (including the emissions from international aviation and shipping which are not covered by the Kyoto Protocol) would have been -8.1% instead of -2.7%". 

Greens/EFA MEPs Michael Cramer and Eva Lichtenberger said: "We need a major shift in approach to how we get around. Ending direct subsidies for climate-damaging transport modes, such as for road construction, must be a priority but we also need to internalise the external environmental costs of transport." Green MEP Caroline Lucas, the European Parliament's rapporteur on climate change and aviation, added: "We need to end indirect subsidies for airlines - such as the lack of tax on kerosene. If there is to be an emissions-trading scheme for the sector, it must be a separate one with rigorous caps so the true environmental cost of flying is reflected in the end price."