Electric Vehicles

Last year, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso announced that a key element of the European Commission’s policy for 2010-14 would be to decarbonise transport by 2050.

As the transport sector is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, the second biggest energy consumer and the only sector where emissions are still growing, achieving sustainable mobility will be an essential element of any effort to reach the EU’s climate goals.

“Europe 2020″, the EU’s blueprint for economic reform, will include a number of initiatives (both legislative and financial) to support investment in infrastructure and low-carbon technologies. The Commission is to present a package of measures on transport and climate.

Which path will Europe’s decision-makers choose? So far, the European Commission has refrained from giving preference to one particular technology. Concerning mobility, it prefers to concentrate more on enabling elements – research and infrastructures – than end-user technologies.

Following the event, we caught up with some of the attendees who had earlier posed questions from the floor.

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Discussion: As well as seeking alternative fuels, should we be changing our entire transportation culture?

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Live Debate: Can Europe de-carbonise transport?

The perennial question of what transport will look like in the future has been replaced, in recent years, with a far more important and urgent question; how will this transport be powered? As fossil fuels dwindle and new technology becomes necessary rather than desirable, how we get from A to B is climbing up the global political agenda.

No form of transport is as critical in this debate as the motor car. The internal combustion changed the way we live, but its power source is running dry so this month Comment Visions meets Dr Paul Nieuwenhuis, an academic, adviser, environmentalist and car enthusiast.

In this fascinating and wide-ranging interview Dr Nieuwenhuis discusses how local energy resources will lead to different solutions for different places, how cars will be built differently in the future and even proposes the idea of a world without car dealers!

Discussion: Are we doing enough to ensure a rapid and smooth transition to carbon neutral transport systems this century?

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Live Debate: Can Europe de-carbonise transport?