European Transportation in the Greenhouse — System and Policy Indicators

The transport sector in Europe is growing in both absolute and relative terms. Not only because the number of European Union states have increased – 10 new members, including Cyprus welcomed in 2004 - but also because transport is a highly expansive sector in both old and new Member Countries. Current transport growth does not help the EU in meeting its Kyoto protocol obligation to reduce GHG emission by 8% from base year to 2008-2012, and the predicted future mobility trends will pose substantial challenges for achieving possible further reduction objectives beyond the Kyoto framework.

The purpose of this paper is to give a brief overall account of the present situation and outlook in terms of transport energy use and GHG emissions in the context of European Union transport policy. The present assessment is based on a personal selection of some indicators that the author belives are key to evaluate the presenst situation and identify challengs for future research.

The indicators are all drawn from official sources or scholarly studies, while the way they are interpreted and presented by the author should not be confused with any official EU or government review. Later this year the European Transport Policy White Paper from 2001 will receive its official 5 year mid-term review by the European Commission.

This may be one of the key occasions where official conclusions and possibly new directions for some of the issues discussed here will emerge.