Halve emissions from cars by 2050, auto industry told

Consortium claims '50 by 50' initiative could save equivalent of half EU's current C0² emissions

David Gow in Geneva
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 March 2009 16.46 GMT

The global auto industry and governments were today set a target of halving emissions from cars by 2050 by an international agency consortium including the UN.
The number of cars on the world's roads is forecast to have tripled by then, as billions in developing countries take to the roads. The aim of the "50 by 50" initiative, launched at the annual motor show in Geneva, is to offset that growth with improved fuel efficiency to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions at their current levels.
"We're not saying that nobody can have a car," said Jack Short, secretary general of the International Transport Forum, one of the forum members.
"We have not set a ceiling here, but a floor," added Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme.
Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said the target could be achieved with existing technologies, including electric vehicles, hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars, as well as with more fuel-efficient internal combustion engines.
The consortium is already in talks with governments and auto industry executives about its initiative which, it says, should be started at once — and be integrated into financial support for the ailing industry.
"This is a building-block towards making the transport sector part of the solution towards a low-carbon economy," Short said. "The era of cheap oil is simply over and government policy to accommodate this change must include setting fuel standards," added Tanaka, saying transport accounted for a quarter of global emissions.
The consortium, which also includes the FIA Foundation, claims the programme could save 6bn barrels of oil and 2 gigatonnes of CO² a year, equivalent to half the total current emissions of the EU.
Based on emission levels in new cars built in 2005, the scheme sets interim targets to be achieved by 2020 and 2030 in line with those set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It comes with the claim that it could cut global oil import bills by $300bn-plus a year by 2025 and by $600bn by 2050.
The protagonists insisted that it should begin now because of the crisis in the car industry, not despite it. "More than ever, clear signals are needed regarding where vehicle designs and markets should be heading over the coming decades," they said.
But Tanaka cautioned that electric cars fuelled by power from old-style coal-fired plants made no sense or contribution to cutting emissions. "We have first to de-carbonise the power sector and then use new technologies that make a genuine difference." Steiner added: "We need a de-coupling of the growth of traffic from emissions."
The initiative came just hours after Fiat launched a new internal combustion engine, both petrol and diesel, that, it claimed, could cut emissions by at least 10percent and produce 10percent more power. The "Multiair" engine, to be used initially in Alfa Romeo's Mito supermini car, directly controls air through the intake engine valves.
Alfredo Altavilla, head of Fiat Powertrain Technologies, said the turbo version in small cars could be 25% more fuel-efficient and reduce emissions by the same proportion — making the Mito one of the first models to emit less than 80g per km.
He took a swipe at rival manufacturers such as Toyota, which have staked huge investments in hybrids, electric vehicles and alternative fuels. "When we have reached, say, 2020 or 2025 and the evolution of the internal combustion engine is exhausted then you could move to electric cars if needed.
It makes no sense to put on the market engines which cost ¤5000-7000 more than conventional engines and hoping someone will subsidise these exotic technologies. What we're doing is reducing consumption and emissions but remaining affordable." But he refused to set a price for the new engine or the car.