Today (29 October) David Baldock, Executive Director of IEEP and a member of the High Level Group on CARS 21, will participate in the final conference on the Mid-Term Review of CARS 21 in Brussels. He will stress the need to maintain the drive for more fuel-efficient cars in spite of the credit crunch, to protect the car industry against the ‘carbon crunch’ to come. Other highlights of the speech:

• IEEP recognises the current challenging economic climate for the car industry but welcomes the encouragement of fuel efficient vehicle use. Governments can be more active through due use of incentives, green procurement and consumer information (labelling and advertising) and the encouragement of car manufacturers in Europe to seize the opportunity to become world leaders in fuel efficient vehicles.
• Energy security is a further concern to many governments. Again, it is a problem that can be alleviated through encouraging fuel efficient vehicle sales.
• IEEP welcomes better regulation and better Impact Assessment under CARS 21 and supports the move to include a wider set of stakeholders in the future discussion. When assessing costs, the society as a whole and individual consumers as well as manufacturers should be taken into account.
• IEEP welcomes the fact that CARS 21 has voted to develop a vision for 2050 and agreed that road transport needs to be largely decarbonised by then. It will give industry the clarity of direction to help them build ‘future friendly’ cars for a low CO2 world market into their product planning cycle.

Please contact IEEP at kkotsalainen@ieep.eu for the full version of the speech.