The aim of EU’s greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) represents the promotion of a mechanism for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the fields of activity responsible for this type of emissions, so that meeting the commitments assumed by the EU under Kyoto Protocol will be less expensive.
The important environmental agreements on protecting the environment against climate change have included the transport sector among those sectors whose objectives will be cutting polluting emissions by 2020. With all the efforts made by specialized industries, transport is undoubtedly the only sector whose polluting emissions have increased significantly starting with the ‘90s. More than 90% of the total emissions in national transport in Europe are caused by road transport, while railway transport is responsible only for 0.6% of diesel emissions and less than 2% of emissions resulted from power generation. But this does not mean that it has been exempted from making commitments on cutting polluting emissions.
Despite the many initiatives of launching policies and strategies for cutting emissions, including that of the railway sector to cut emissions by 39% by 2020, it is estimated that the transport demand will be the highest in all sectors and even through the limited decoupling of the energy consumption caused by the transport demand, the resulted energy consumption will increase just as much. The European Commission has foreseen a 21% growth in the energy consumption for transport from 2000 to 2030.
In Europe, Kyoto Protocol, which is still in force and will be replaced in 2012, is the second priority in terms of reducing transport emissions. Much more severe is the European Directive on reducing greenhouse gas emissions which became effective in 2004.
Moreover, in March 2011 the European Commission adopted a complex strategy called “Transports 2050” aimed to develop a competitive transport system that would increase the mobility level and stimulate economic growth. At the same time, the proposals will dramatically reduce Europe’s dependency on imported oil and will help cut transport-generated carbon emissions by 60% until 2050.
“Transports 2050 is a roadmap for a competitive transport sector that will help reduce emissions. Restricting mobi-lity and maintaining the present situation are out of discussion. We have the capacity to eliminate the oil dependency of our transport system without sacrificing its efficiency and without compromising mobility”, believes Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for transport.
Meeting the objectives requires a transformation of the current European transport system. Key objectives by 2050, include eliminating the automotive vehicles powered by conventional fuels from urban traffic and the transfer of 50% of he interurban medium-distance passenger and freight transport from road transport to railway and maritime/inland waterways transport.
Share on:
