Official German report says travel demand must fall if transport to make significant CO2 cuts
Tue 18 May 2010
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A new report for the German Federal Environment Agency - 'CO2 Emissions Reduction in the Transport Sector in Germany' - says that the demand for travel needs to be reduced if the sector is to make meaningful CO2 reductions. While emissions have been falling in most sectors in Germany since 1990, the country's transport sector has not followed the trend.
The main reason for transport’s small contribution to climate protection, according to the report, is the "increase in traffic performance, which is the product of volume transported and distance travelled in freight traffic or of persons transported and distance travelled in private travel".
To ensure that the transport sector makes a contribution to CO2 reduction and thus climate protection in the long term, the report says that it will be neccesary to reduce the amount of travel combined with a set of additional measures and instruments to reduce CO2 emissions of the vehicles themselves.
Based on the report's findings the Federal Environment Agency suggests a range of complementary measures in the following fields:
• Traffic avoidance: Influencing / reducing transport demand and shortening distances.
• Modal shift: Shifting transport to more environmentally friendly modes.
• Optimising transport: Better utilisation of existing transport capacities.
• Economic measures and
• direct emission reduction of vehicles.
To complement this, measures and instruments are proposed focus on the following areas:
• Traffic-reductions through town planning and transport planning
• Promoting environmentally friendlier transport modes
• Economic measures
• Measures to improve vehicle and fleet efficiency
• Consumer information and driving behaviour in road traffic
The Agency says that the most effective measures with the highest potential savings in the medium term – by 2020 –and long term – by 2030 – are:
• Traffic reduction measures in town and traffic planning
• Increasing energy tax
• Use of market-based instruments in aviation
• CO2 legislation
Other measures offering relatively large potential include consumer information for potential vehicle buyers, and the use of low-rolling-resistance tyres.
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