Extracto del prólogo del documento publicado por la Agencia Europea de Medio Ambiente:
The European Commission’s White Paper Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area — Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system, published in 2011, sets out how the transport sector can contribute to meeting the European Union’s targets included in the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy. It sent a clear signal of the role transport will have to play by setting the sector an objective of reducing its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 60 % by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. From the environmental perspective, the 60 % reduction target is expected not only to contribute to the common climate objective, but also to enhance environmental performance in other areas, such as improved resource efficiency. Clear targets allow stakeholders to keep track of the anticipated achievements.
The analytical framework of this report remains the ‘Avoid, Shift, Improve’ approach that the European Environment Agency (EEA) has used consistently since the TERM 2009 report (see Figure 8.2 (EEA, 2010)). This approach can be used to address pressures from transport on the environment, such as CO2 emissions.
‘Avoid, Shift, Improve’ aims to reduce the environmental impact of transport by avoiding the use of transportation where possible; shifting necessary transport from more environmentally harmful to less environmentally harmful modes of transport; and improving the efficiency of all modes of transport.
The principal idea behind ‘avoiding pressures’ is that the optimisation of demand, as well as the shift to more environmentally friendly modes of transport, can not only be cost‐effective but can also offer environmental co-benefits. For example, avoiding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transport sector by reducing transport demand has the positive side‐effect of improving air quality and reducing noise levels.
Measures and activities in the ‘shift’ approach include the recently amended ‘Eurovignette Directive’ (EC, 2011g), which aims to make progress in the internalisation of external costs. Further action is anticipated to meet both the passenger‐ and freight‐specific distance‐based goals of the European Commission’s White Paper relating to road, rail
and waterborne modes. Such action would include further development of rail infrastructure through the trans‐European transport networks (TEN‐T), as well as opening the rail transport market to competition, and improving the interoperability and safety of national rail networks.The ‘improve’ component focuses largely on technical solutions. While these cannot be the only answer to environmental pressures from the transport sector, they can help improve the performance of certain transport modes if efficiency gains are not outweighed by increased transport demand. For example, European Union legislation on CO2 emission reductions from passenger cars and vans can help to promote the uptake of vehicle technologies.
In its resolution on the European Commission’s Transport White Paper (EP, 2011a), the European Parliament asked the European Commission to carry out an annual assessment of progress towards the targets set out in the White Paper. The EEA’s TERM fulfils the environmental part of the European Parliament’s request.