As part of Region IV’s Programme for Sustainable Mobility, the Automóvil Club del Ecuador (ANETA) has been operating a pilot scheme aimed at building awareness of less environmentally impactful forms of transport, including advocating for legislative encouragement of sustainable mobility.

“Today, we have presented the work that has been carried out in Region IV over the last four months which has been principally based around the strategic points the FIA has defined for Mobility, and in particular sustainable mobility,” said Region IV President Jorge Tomasi Crisci.

“For this we have developed a pilot project with the ANETA with support from Hinicios, an international strategy consulting firm specialised in sustainable energy and transport,” he continued. “For this project we introduced a Club to what sustainable mobility is all about and how from that platform they can develop a variety of business initiatives in an area that will form part of our future reality in every market.”

The project saw ANETA engage in dialogue with governmental authorities, energy companies, environmental agencies, educational institutions, transport bodies and private enterprise in order to shape a new agenda around sustainable transport.

“We are trying to create a new concept for a new generation,” said Diego Cosentino, Regional Manager of Region IV. “We know that in the region mobility is changing, that there are new alternatives like for example electric mobility and that is what we are trying to achieve.” President Tomasi Crisci added: “Latin America is a region that lends itself to the creation of a new sustainable mobility as there is great scope for clean/renewable energy production. There are countries here that are at the forefront of wind power production, so there is a very interesting opportunity to develop new technologies for electric mobility.

“There are governments that are considering facilitating the introduction of electric vehicles through the creation of new laws and this will allow the market to move towards these new technologies. The experience we had in Ecuador was very good because it was a highly integrated project. We are now going to try and replicate it through a workshop to train different countries in the region so that they can move in the same way.”

In the area of road safety, the meeting was also presented with plans to implement the ‘Movernos Seguros’ initiative jointly developed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the FIA High Level Panel for Road Safety that explores how car insurance could improve road safety.

“We are getting insurance companies involved in the creation of a programme featuring a system of rewards for drivers with good driving skills or the imposition of penalties in the case of the contrary,” said President Tomasi. “We think there is a good opportunity for Clubs across the region to get involved because it will without doubt create benefits for all. It will reduce road crashes, loss of life and economic accidents, which is very important for insurance companies as they will have less claims to pay out. It will also reinforce Clubs’ safety activities.”