Iveco’s Chief Executive Officer, Paolo Monferino, addressed the annual international ACEA transport policy event, held last week (3 December) in Brussels on the theme; A Global Approach to Sustainable Freight Transport.
Monferino recalled the definition of Sustainable Developments, as discussed in the 1987 Brundtland report titled ‘Our Common Future Way’, and the measures taken by commercial vehicle manufacturers over the past 20 years to bring vehicles to the environmentally friendly Euro V and EEV levels enjoyed today.
With the current priority being to reduce road transport CO2 emissions, Monferino outlined the importance of second generation renewable fuels that are not in competition with food crops and are suitable for use by all commercial vehicles on the road today.
Monferino then outlined the vehicle technologies specifically developed for urban transport, a segment of the industry where pollution is most important and where significant CO2 reductions are possible. This included electric vehicles, diesel / electric hybrids, compressed natural gas vehicles capable of running on bio-methane and today’s conventional diesel engined vehicles, offered with EEV certification (Europe’s most stringent emission standard currently available).
He went on to draw the attention of the conference to the current economic crisis that is not showing significant signs of abating as far as freight transport is concerned, and the importance of sustainable economic trading conditions, necessary to fund such innovative vehicle technologies. To this end, the importance of action on behalf of all stakeholders in achieving the objectives of legislative actions was made.
In the case of new emission standards where legislators demand cleaner vehicles to achieve air quality objectives, he argued that it is not sufficient to simply expect associated product developments from vehicle manufacturers. Monferino referred to the composition of the commercial vehicle running parc of four of the most significant markets in Europe where, on average, almost half of the vehicles in circulation were older than those certified to Euro III emission standards.
Monferino also called on Member States to address this anomaly by introducing fiscal measures in favour of new, environmentally friendly vehicles in order to both achieve the desired improvements in air quality by the removal from the parc of the most polluting vehicles and to stimulate the commercial vehicle market demand.
In addition, the call for a two year deferral of the forthcoming Euro VI emission legislation was made and for its reassessment in the light of the foreseen negative global warming aspect of vehicles certified to this standard.
