IRU’s long standing partnership with the International Transport Forum’s (ITF) decarbonising transport project continues with advocacy on road transport priorities to meet CO2 emissions targets.
The ITF held major online events on Thursday and Friday last week to share the latest results of the decarbonising transport project in Europe, including a recommendation to follow a more comprehensive well-to-wheel approach to reduce CO2 emissions.
The event came one day after the publication of the European Commission’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, based on the misguided approach of only measuring CO2 emissions at the vehicle tailpipe, without considering the source of the energy used, as in the well-to-wheel approach.
ITF experts also encouraged the greater deployment of higher capacity Eco-trucks and investment in infrastructure for alternative fuels to achieve 2050 decarbonisation goals.
IRU’s General Delegate to the EU, Raluca Marian, spoke alongside senior European Commission officials and urged them to reconsider their insistence on using the narrow and incomplete tailpipe, or tank-to-wheel, approach to target action on CO2 emissions.
“The tailpipe approach contained in the new Mobility Strategy is ineffective and distorts investment decisions on reducing emissions to deal with climate change,” she said. “Moreover, it will destroy the coach transport sector, despite it being the greenest and most inclusive form of passenger transport.”