[mailchimp_signup][/mailchimp_signup]But the next 50 years will be very different. The objectives of securing peace and prosperity may stay the same, but we need completely
different means. In 1957 the priority was to stimulate Europe’s food production and nuclear energy, both at taxpayers’ expense. In the
next 50 years the major challenges are essentially environmental.
The prices of virtually all natural and energy resources, notably oil, have exploded over the past years due to the boom in global
demand. Apart from the oil situation, the Mexican “tortilla crisis” is another example of exploding demand for basic resources, in this
case corn. These developments hurt the poor the hardest, which leads to increased global inequalities, and in turn increases the risk of
conflict.
In addition, climate change is already happening and no-action scenarios point to global warming of four degrees by 2100 – again a
development that will dramatically show the differences in vulnerability of rich and poor and enormously affect those whose lives directly
depend on the natural environment.
Managing resource use and managing climate change – both are strongly related – are therefore the central challenges for Europe in
the next 50 years. These challenges will not go away and we really need to think ahead in order to solve them.
In terms of transport policy, it is vital that we get rid of the greatest anomalies, such as the lack of fuel taxation and VAT in aviation
and shipping, and the lack of energy efficiency standards for road vehicles. We should be really serious about these policies and recognise
that emissions trading will only be a drop in the ocean. We need to make sure that biofuels do not compete with food, and that there
is only a market for the most effective and least harmful biofuels. And we really need to avoid massive exploitation of the euphemistically
called “unconventional oil” – tar sands, oil shale and “coal-to-liquid” oil.
But we need to look further. We need to create spatial concentration of demand for freight and passenger transport, so low-speed
and collective transport becomes more rather than ever less attractive. Europeans need to become convinced that the best way to fight
the consequences of their own overconsumption (obesity) and the world’s overconsumption (resource and climate crises) is to leave their
car at home and choose to walk, cycle or take collective transport. That will not happen as long as consumers are not aware of the real
cost of their transport choices.
If we create the right price framework, maybe health insurers will start giving a bonus to people without a car because they are healthier.
Talking of insurance, maybe “pay-as-you-drive” policies will become the rule rather than the exception. And why not forbid those
commercial flights for which alternative surface transport takes less than three hours? If much of this happens, Europe’s 100th birthday
will also be worth celebrating.
This news story is taken from the March 2007 edition of T&E Bulletin.
