Diesel cars' emissions far higher on road than in lab, tests show

Based on a UK government investigation, it was revealed that diesel cars produce many times more health-damaging pollutants than the ones reported during laboratory tests. A study by the Department for Transport (DfT) was performed and a vast difference in n nitrogen oxide emissions measured in the laboratory and under normal driving conditions was detected. The DfT said that no vehicles outside the VW group with systems in place to deliberately rig emissions figures were found. Based on the same study, none of the 37 top-selling vehicles that were claimed to have met the previous Euro 5 limit of 180 mg/km, in place from 2009 until last year, stayed within that legal level when driven on the road.

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Volkswagen: The scandal explained

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many VW cars being sold in America had a “defeat device” – or software- in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. More specifically, once on the road, the engines emitted nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what is allowed in the US.

VW stated that they had found “irregularities” is tests to measure carbon dioxide emissions levels that could affect about 800,000 vehicles in Europe. VW will recall 8.5 million cars in Europe and 500,000 in US as a result of this scandal.

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Study: Volkswagen’s emission cheat to cause 60 premature deaths in U.S.

Based on a new MIT-led study, the use of Volkswagen’s software to evade emissions in more than 482,000 diesel vehicles sold in the U.S. will directly contribute to 60 premature deaths across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency discovered in September 2015 that Volkswagen had developed and installed “defeat devices” (software) in light-duty diesel vehicles sold between 2008 and 2015.

EU Transport in figures: Statistical Pocketbook 2017 published

The Statistical Pocketbook for 2017 has just been published. The publication provides an overview of the most recent and most pertinent annual transport-related statistics in Europe. It covers the European Union and its 28 Member States and, as far as possible, the current EU candidate countries and the EFTA countries.

Compendium on GHG Baselines and Monitoring

A comprehensive guide for GHG quantification of different types of transport mitigation action was officially launched in the beginning of May during the Technical Meeting of United Nations – Framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC). The Passenger and Freight Transport Volume of the Compendium on GHG Baselines and Monitoring is a multi-stakeholder effort to provide a resource map of methodologies and tools for establishing baselines and monitoring emissions reductions from mitigation actions.

​The methodologies presented in the volume were chosen with a view to cover a broad range of different mitigation action types in terms of scale, type of intervention and affected modes.

​The publication is coordinated by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with the UNFCCC Secretariat and the Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SloCaT), with funding from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), and written with the assistance of the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP).

​Download the Volume here.

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EU Transport Scoreboard 2016

The European Commission has published the 2016 edition of the "EU Transport Scoreboard", a benchmark which compares how Member States perform in 30 categories covering all aspects of transport.
The objective of the Scoreboard is to help Member States identify areas requiring priority investment and action. 

The Netherlands tops the Scoreboard for the third year running with high scores in 15 categories, followed by Sweden, Germany and Austria. While they have different strengths, they all share a solid framework for investment, good transport safety scores, and a good record of implementing EU law.

The main findings:
1. Low emission mobility
There is progress across the EU towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly mobility, however, levels are still low. To this end, the Commission adopted a European Strategy for low-emission mobility in July 2016
1. Infrastructure
Some positive effects of investment can be seen in the perceived quality of transport infrastructure.
1. People

Consumer satisfaction with all modes of transport (urban, rail, air) has increased across Europe. This suggests that people's needs are understood and that the right investment decisions are being taken. Moreover, the number of road deaths is stagnating, while the number of women employed in the transport sector is increasing. 

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Transport innovation for sustainable cities and regions: 2016 Annual Polis Conference

Polis is a network of European cities and regions cooperating to develop innovative technologies and policies for local transport which was founded in 1989.The 2016 Polis Conference connects transport innovation professionals who work in local and regional governments and related organisations.

Beijing exploits re-generative power with ultra-capacitor usage

Lot of efforts have been given in rail braking power usage. Using re-generative power reduces the energy consumption of a train and the temperature inside the tunnels.

VW lags as rivals' Europe sales accelerate

This article indicates the impact of the Volkswagen emissions scandal in the sales of the manufacturer. Comparing December 2014 and 2015 it is obvious that their competitors increased their sales with impressive numbers, whereas Volkswagen almost froze their sales for this certain period.

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New device offers ‘smart’ vehicle emissions analysis

Based on the fact, revealed by the Volkswagen scandal, that real-world emission can differ from the ones produced in the laboratory, a team from the University of Heidelberg proposed the use of a "smart" device. This device can be fitted in any vehicle and can calculate emission directly from the vehicle.

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Diesel cars' emissions far higher on road than in lab, tests show

After the Volkswagen scandal UK made several investigations to various vehicle manufacturers, such as Ford, Renault and Vauxhall and the results showed that diesel vehicles are producing far more nitrogen oxide emissions in real-world driving conditions than in the laboratory.

Bill Gates 'Discovers' 14-Year-Old Formula on Climate Change

Bill Gates has 'discovered' a formula that can reduce the world's carbon dioxide emissions to zero. The truth is that this equation is not 'new' and as Bill Gates has already explained it is not easy to put in action this equation, since an "energy miracle" is required.

Estimating carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants

The content of this article is about the method that should be used for the calculation of carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants. There is a brief analysis of the formula used for the calculation. In addition there is information about each factor used in the formula and also some values that should be used for each factor.

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IKEA and Nestle press EU for new laws on heavy duty truck emissions

Three of the biggest multinational companies keep together in the mission of emissions reduction. IKEA, Nestle and Heathrow press EU to find new laws in field of truck. According to three companies there is a small change in truck energy consumption in the last two decades. EU asked them to propose new standards that reduce fuel consumption in new trucks to implement them after 2020. Finally companies propose EU to introduce new fuel economy standards in next two years.

ACEPT – AIR & NO2 ICAD: Innovative tools for measuring PM and NOx in air

The increased concentration of airborne particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the atmosphere of many European cities is still a major environmental problem.

Airborne particulate matter (PM) is a complex mixture of microscopic particles derived from natural sources, such as volcanic explosions, dust resuspension and pollen, and anthropogenic sources, such as transportations, combustion processes, processing of mineral and agriculture. They are responsible for various effects on climate, visibility reduction, acid rain and health effects, such as respiratory and heart problems and even cancer.

Urban Transport Roadmaps Tool is coming!

On 13 April 2016 the Urban Transport Roadmaps tool was launched at an event in Bremen (Germany).

The web-based tool, which is supported by the European Commission's DG MOVE, is designed to explore transport scenarios that are practical, feasible and implementable. By using the tool, political and technical decision-makers can find a suitable mix of measures to realise the goals of their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs).

How sustainable mobility contributes to the win of the European Green Capital Award?

“Ljubljana - winner of the Official European Green Capital Award - will from today act as ambassador for sustainable urban development, sharing its local, best practices and encouraging other cities across Europe to become greener, healthier and more sustainable” – source European Commission’s Facebook page

This post was the motivation for raising various queries, such as “What is the European Green Capital Award?”, “Which are the criteria for winning it?” and “Which actions and changes, regarding sustainable mobility mainly, had to be done by Ljubljana’s authorities in order to win the award?”

HSL provides sustainable mobility through open data, open APIs and open journey planner

Concerning that most of the carbon emissions of transport and most of the energy consumption caused by road transport, Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) considered that the reduction of car driving and the increase of use of public transport, walking, cycling and car sharing are urgent needs. In this direction, HSL has planned the development of the Helsinki Region Transport System Plan (HLJ).

HSL is a joint local authority, consists of seven member municipalities – Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, Kerava, Kirkkonummi and Sipoo – which started its operations in 2010. HSL made the use of public transport attractive to commuters, as 345 million journeys are accomplished according to its services.

Explaining road transport emissions - A non-technical guide

  EMISIA, GYM consortium's member, has co-authored a non-technical guide “explaining road transport emissions”, recently published by the European Environment Agency. The report provides a summary of the current knowledge on vehicle emissions in Europe, it also explains how emissions are monitored and the common technologies used to limit them.

Road transport is an important source of both greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Despite improvements in vehicle efficiencies over past decades, today the sector is responsible for almost one fifth of Europe's greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from vehicles also lead to high concentrations of air pollutants above EU standards in many of Europe's cities. This report provides a summary of the current knowledge on vehicle emissions in Europe. It also explains how emissions are monitored and the common technologies used to limit them.

This is why GYM matters

Some 80,000 deaths are prevented each year thanks to the introduction of EU policies and new technologies to reduce air pollution. This is the finding of a new study led by the UK’s University of Leeds that shows a 35% reduction of fine particles in the atmosphere between 1970 and 2010. 

In the study – the first to look into the effectiveness of specific EU policies to reduce air pollution across Europe – researchers used a computer model to compare the current amount of air pollution simulated across Europe to a scenario in which no air quality legislation or new emissions technologies had been introduced since 1970.