The FIA has launched a global campaign for greener motoring with a series of international events, held in conjunction with UN World Environment Day.
The Make Cars Green campaign, which aims to reduce the impact of motoring on the environment, has been promoted by FIA member clubs through high-level launches in the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington, the Spanish Parliament in Madrid and the European Commission in Brussels.
Further FIA campaign activities will take place in South Africa, Russia, China, Japan, Italy, UK, United Arab Emirates, France, Austria, Luxembourg, Portugal, Nicaragua, Croatia, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Oman, Sudan, Malta and Yemen.
The FIA has also utilised its links with sport to help promote the campaign message, with welcome support from competitors in the FIA Formula One World Championship, the FIA World Rally Championship and the FIA World Touring Car Championship. The connections between greener motoring and motor sport go beyond mere promotion with hybrid devices set to be introduced into Formula One next year in the first of a number of initiatives that will be hugely relevant to the car industry and to the increasingly eco-conscious motoring consumer.
The Make Cars Green campaign, backed by global partner Bridgestone, is calling on the United Nations to adopt the first-ever worldwide target for CO2 emissions in passenger cars. The FIA and its member clubs unanimously agreed on a Declaration which sets a global CO2 emissions benchmark of 140g/km for passenger cars as part of a new international framework for greener motoring.
As well as the new global standard for fuel economy the other policy objective of the campaign is to reduce the impact of motoring on the environment through the promotion of more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient driver behaviour. This includes the introduction of new technologies to help motorists monitor their environmental impact; the improvement of tyre design to help save energy; and the promotion of the global use of unleaded and sulphur free fuels.
Campaign partner Bridgestone will be working with FIA clubs in each of the launch countries to help educate drivers about more eco-friendly and fuel-efficient driving techniques through the launch of a ’10 point guide for greener driving’.
Full details of the Make Cars Green campaign and the FIA Declaration are available on a new campaign web site: www.makecarsgreen.com.
