Brussels, 29/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European rail industry has set itself a number of environmental targets to reach by 2050. The International Union of Railways (UIC) and the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) have outlined new targets for 2030 and 2050 on climate protection, energy efficiency, emission and noise reduction, based on databases from 1990. The executive director of the CER, Libor Lochman, provided assurances that, “Modal shift to rail from higher emitting roads could further increase these advantages”.
The UIC and CER are now planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. This is just an intermediate stage because these associations want the sector to stop producing CO2 emissions altogether by 2050. Fine particle emissions PM10 and nitrogen oxide (NOx) are set to fall by 40%, in comparison to levels in 2005. Cutting these emissions out altogether by 2050 is also planned. Energy consumption by their members in the rail sector is due to fall by 30% by 2030 and by 50% by 2050. General noise pollution and problems linked to vibration should also be resolved, without interrupting 24-hour transport.
In an effort to quantify the progress made, the UIC and CER will make an annual assessment of these targets. These targets were presented in committee procedures with the European Environment Agency's “Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism” (TERM), which MEPs were provided with earlier this week. (MD/transl.fl)