Transport and Environment - Bulletin / News and views from the field of transport and environment in Europe
The printable version of the October 2011 bulletin can be downloaded from our website.
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October 2011:
Advocate’s opinion emphatically rejects airlines’ ETS complaints
The advocate general of the European Court of Justice has delivered her opinion on the case, and it rejects all the airlines’ complaints. Although the advocate general’s opinion is not binding on the final ruling, the Court seldom deviates substantially from an advocate general’s view, and this view is very clear.
Commission recognises climate impact of unconventional oil in fuel quality directive
Petrol and diesel made from tar sands, coal, gas and oil shale will be assigned a different carbon footprint than fuels from conventional oil, if a proposal from the Commission is supported by EU member states. After years of lobbying by Canada and some sections of the oil industry, the Commission has stuck to its original plan to assign different values to fuels dependent on their source. The values are needed as part of EU efforts to reduce the climate impact of fuel production by 6% by 2020.
EU biofuels policy ‘not supported by science’
More than 150 scientists and economists have written to the Commission calling for it to recognise that biofuels production can have indirect impacts on land-use, and for the resulting emissions to be taken into account in assessing which biofuels help in the fight against global warming. The letter comes as one branch of the biofuels industry has broken away from the rest by saying it would support indirect land-use change (Iluc) being a factor in assessing which biofuels will count towards the EU’s renewable energy target and hence qualify for support.
Proposals for new transport funds make little progress on decarbonised future
The Commission has published a package of proposals for spending the EU’s structural and infrastructure funds. It has also created a new vehicle for funding trans-European transport and energy networks, to be known as the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ (CEF). T&E says they make too little progress on achieving the EU’s environmental goals.
Ship speed limits are legal and save fuel
Requiring ships to slow down is an environmentally beneficial option that is both legal and does not damage ships. These were just some of the findings to emerge from a seminar earlier this month organised by T&E and another NGO, Seas at Risk.
Cleaner ship fuels – it’s about time!
Opinion
By Kerstin Meyer - T&E senior campaigner
It seemed the wrong way round when the Commission came under heavy lobby-fire earlier this year over the issue of new sulphur limits for marine fuel. Typically when it comes to international areas like shipping, industry lobbyists always call for an international agreement instead of European legislation. Since these international bodies tend to work extremely slowly that usually means nothing really happens for the next 10 or 20 years, but in this case that was not true. In 2008 the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) agreed some fairly substantial air pollution rules. And now the shipping industry is calling on European policy-makers to ignore the agreement and set their own – weaker – standards.
Car-free Milan after PM pollution
The Italian city of Milan was totally car-free for 10 hours on 9 October because pollution had exceeded permitted levels for 12 consecutive days.
Inventory of state aid for fossil fuels
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has completed what is believed to be the first assessment of state support for fossil fuels.
Tunnel competition
The Commission is taking legal action against the British and French governments for failure to allow competition through the Channel Tunnel.
Hard work on cars
The Commission president José Manuel Barroso says he will introduce legislative proposals next year to improve infrastructure for low-carbon vehicles.
MEPs want 30 km/h zones
MEPs have supported a resolution that ‘strongly recommends’ 30 km/h speed limits in all residential areas.
