The Partnership for Clean Fuel and Vehicles has held it’s 6th Global Partnership meeting in Beijing. The Partnership whose membership extends across the globe, and numbers amongst its members representatives of a wide range of NGOs, Governments, and the private sector – as well as the FIA Foundation - looked back at the last 5 years of the Partnership’s work, in order to learn lessons and inform future activity.
One of the main objectives of the partnership from its launch in 2002 has been the phase-out of leaded gasoline globally. Members reinforced the need to build on the amazing success of the campaign to date (link to film) by focusing on the 16 countries which still use leaded gasoline – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Yemen, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. They also explored next steps in the Partnership’s other key campaign to reduce the use of sulphur in vehicle fuels worldwide to 50 ppm or below concurrent with clean vehicles and clean vehicles technologies, where enormous challenges still remain across the globe.
The meeting also explored the links and synergies to wider climate change issues, particularly the issues of fuel economy and efficiency. In her presentation to the Partnership of the FIA Foundation’s plans for work in this area, the Director of Environment, Sheila Watson, said: ‘In order to reduce vehicle emissions it is important to adopt a ‘green systems’ approach which takes a holistic view of the production, use and recycling of motor vehicles. For example, to reduce automobile toxic emissions it is not enough to rely only on cleaner engine technologies, it is also vital to ensure that cleaner fuels are used so that the vehicle as a total system can reduce its toxic emissions. That is why we are engaged in a range of different environmental projects such as Ecotest, a unique ‘star-rating’ test developed with the German motor club ADAC, which tests GHGs and other emissions on a more realistic drive cycle than the NEDC, and the Global Alliance for Ecomobility which seeks to look beyond motorised vehicles for different solutions to the world’s need for mobility.
“Our Fuel Economy symposium is a practical initiative to take forward work on a fuel economy standard. Working in partnership with IEA, UNEP and ITF, we have organised a symposium which aims to promote discussion of the scope of a global approach to automotive fuel economy issues and the building blocks for a coherent and cost effective international policy framework. The symposium programme will include discussion of the global trends in automotive fuel economy, the potential contribution of fuel and vehicle technologies to reduce fossil fuel consumption, the role of fuel economy testing, labelling and standards, and of market mechanisms and pathways towards a global policy framework. We look forward to sharing the results of this initiative with you.’
Click here to download Sheila Watson's presentation >