Climate Action 2014-2015

RESILIENT CITIES
Agency, the International Transport
Forum, the FIA Foundation, UC Davis
University, the International Council
for Clean Transportation and the UN
Environment Programme. The Advisory
Group of the GFEI includes the global
oil and vehicles industry, major NGOs
and international experts. To achieve these
objectives, countries need to urgently
adopt measures that will see a significant
improvement of fuel efficiency. Measures
successfully deployed, among others,
include import regulation of old vehicles,
emissions standards, fiscal measures
(reducing taxes on efficient vehicles and
increasing taxes on inefficient vehicles),
labelling (standardised labelling indicating
efficiency of cars in showrooms), removal
of the oldest vehicles (rebate or ‘cash for
clunkers’ schemes) and removal of fuel
subsidies.
GFEI supports countries in developing
national fleet fuel economy baselines,
and helps them set up national task
forces, conduct cost-benefit analyses
and develop and adopt policies that
are often a mix of regulatory, financial
and awareness measures. For example,
in Mauritius recently a new taxation
scheme has been introduced to promote
more efficient vehicles. In Chile a new
vehicle labelling scheme has been started,
together with a vehicle carbon tax.
Similar policies are under development
in many other countries, including
Indonesia, Kenya, Philippines, Vietnam,
Ethiopia and Thailand.
Many country projects include
components for the introduction of
zero and low emission vehicles, such as
hybrid and electric vehicles. While it is
"Many country projects
include components for the
introduction of zero and low
emission vehicles, such as
hybrid and electric vehicles."
estimated that for the coming decade
the major emissions reduction from
the global fleet needs to be achieved
through improving fuel efficiency, new
technologies can help make further
progress; this would go beyond levelling
the emissions of the global fleet and start
making an overall reduction.
Support to the GFEI is provided
by the European Union, the Global
Environment Facility, the UN
Environment Programme and the FIA
Foundation, among others, to the tune
of nearly US$9 million.
SCALING UP
The world is to invest US$400 trillion
buying cars and the fuels to run them
from now until 2050. That is 25 times
the GDP of today’s EU. It is important
that these vehicles will be added in
countries that promote cleaner and more
efficient vehicles. The objective of the
GFEI is to do exactly that – support all
countries in the world adopt a clean and
efficient vehicles policy.
The GFEI is monitoring trends at global
and national level, creating awareness, and
supporting regional and national action.
At the moment close to 20 country
programmes are being supported in
Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Middle
East that are developing fuel economy
polices. A similar number have expressed
interest to work with the GFEI. We are
convinced that this will result in a critical
mass and will see all countries worldwide
adopt fuel economy policies.
Rob de Jong is Head of the Transport
Unit, Division of Technology, Industry and
Economics, United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP). He is a Dutch national,
holding degrees in environmental engineering
and environmental policy. Rob has been
working for UNEP for more than 19 years,
in functions related to environmental policy
development and the urban environment. He
has headed the Transport Unit in UNEP for
the last eight years.
The Division of Technology, Industry and
Economics in UNEP leads UNEP’s work in
areas such as climate change, energy, resource
efficiency, harmful substances and hazardous
waste. This includes work on improving air
quality and sustainable transport.
www.globalfueleconomy.org
Source: Max Ahman / UNEP
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