EUROPE: The European Parliament’s Environment and Transport committees have jointly adopted a draft report on a proposed EU Regulation which would establish a common methodology to enable fair comparisons of the greenhouse gas emissions from different modes of transport.
This was welcomed by the Community of European Railway & Infrastructure Companies, which said the draft report is an improvement on the European Commission proposal published last July.
A well-to-wheel approach would be used to calculate emissions from energy, and in the future this could be extended to take a life-cycle approach including emissions from vehicle manufacturing, maintenance and disposal.
‘European railways expect the new CountEmissionsEU methodology to better address the EU transport decarbonisation challenge by facilitating well-informed customer choices in relation to both passenger journeys and freight shipments’, CER Executive Director Alberto Mazzola said on March 5. ’Energy-efficient and low CO2 intensity modes must be recognised and promoted, and this proposed EU harmonised tool could offer a suitable framework for achieving this. We look forward to the finalisation of the Parliament position in April.’
