Speaking to the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership in London’s City Hall on 9 June, FIA Foundation Director General David Ward called on the automobile industry and governments to develop a more coherent global strategy to reduce CO2 emissions and promote fuel economy.

David Ward said: “For too long, fuel economy and emissions policy have been dealt with at a regional level with the US, Europe and Japan developing policy in isolation. This led to the absurd situation in which global car makers took legal action to prevent California adopting fuel economy rules that are less stringent than standards which the same companies voluntarily accepted in Europe.

“Now, with the failure of their US legal action, the arrival of the Obama Administration, and their growing dependence on government and taxpayer support, car makers must adopt a more constructive and credible approach.”

Presenting the ‘50 by 50’ Global Fuel Economy Initiative launched earlier this year in partnership with the UN Environment Programme, the International Energy Agency and the International Transport Forum, David Ward outlined the opportunity to achieve firstly a 30 per cent fuel economy improvement in all new OECD cars by 2030, followed by a 50 per cent improvement from all new cars worldwide, and finally a 50 per cent fuel efficiency goal for the world’s passenger car fleet by 2050.

If successful, the ‘50 by 50’ campaign would save two billion tonnes of CO2 per year by 2050 and simultaneously generate hundreds of billions of cost savings especially to oil importing countries and consumers. It would support further improvements in air quality and safety benefits related to lighter vehicles, reducing injury to pedestrians and non-motorised traffic.

Manufacturers could also anticipate cost savings from greater efforts at global harmonisation of regulatory systems that will likely be cheaper to comply with than the current patchwork of different systems.

The LowCVP Conference was attended by around 200 delegates and featured a keynote address from the UK’s Secretary of State for Transport Lord Adonis. Other speakers included the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. The presentations given by all speakers are now available on the LowCVP website at http://www.lowcvp.org.uk/news/1187/lowcvp-conferencecity-hall-8-june-presentations-now-on-line/.