Transcript ppt

Reducing transport
emissions: Models
of change
Harriet Williams,
JMG Foundation
Environmental Funders Network
“Everyone talks about the weather,
but no one does anything about it”
Mark Twain
Philanthropic response to climate
change
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Where The Green Grants Went – analysis of UK
funding
Covered 176 trusts in the 2004/05 financial year
Environmental grants totalled £33.6 million – just
1.6% of UK trust giving (in US ca. 5%)
Of this less than 10% directed towards climate
change – much of the funding is for conservation
Climate change grants amounted to less than
0.2% of UK trust giving in total
Very few grants to EU level work
Problems with road transport
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Road transport 20% of EU carbon emissions,
majority from passenger cars
Average person travels 36km per day – 27km of
that by car
Noise, air pollution, accidents and land take
Car-dependent societies
Social justice dimension (including access to
non-car alternatives, health impacts)
Origins of road transport emissions
 Three major components:
 Energy efficiency of road vehicles
 Total distance travelled by vehicle fleet
 Carbon-intensity of transport fuel
The blame game
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Shifting of responsibility between government,
business and consumers
Automakers call for ‘integrated approach’ to
share burden of fuel economy regulation
Higher oil prices = end of ‘green dream’?
Unhelpful current paradigms: “Consumers don’t
want clean cars”; “War on the motorist”
Decisive action by national and EU governments
needed to clean up road transport. But where is
the popular mandate for doing so?
So what should we do?
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Where can funders ‘add value’?
Need to rapidly expand range of actions that are
politically feasible and attractive to government
E.g. boosting fuel economy, reducing cardependency
Models of change: Where power lies, obstacles
to change, ways of tackling vested interests
Build wider movement from below, comprising
‘non-environmental’ publics to raise political
costs of inaction
Aim for change at system level not symptom
level
Pressure points: Fuel efficiency
Government
EU regs: 120g by 2012
Lobbying
Climate change
Technnology
Fuel/vehicle tax
Energy security
Competitiveness/jobs
Fleet procurement
Fuel savings
Consumer psychology
Choice/personal freedom
Business
Advertising
Consumers
So what should we do?
1. EU regulation of car CO2
 Highly politicised – showdown between France
and Germany
 Build ‘broad church’ to counter industry lobbying
2. Car advertising
 Good platform from which to question what
consumers really want and need in a car
3. Incremental technology gains
 Off-the-shelf rather than in the future
= Focus on EU gov, industry lobbying and
advertising
Pressure points: Travel behaviour
Government
Public transport
Road-building
Teleconf./flexi-time
Climate change
Car clubs etc.
Fuel/vehicle tax
Traffic congestion
Land-use planning
Choice/personal freedom
Parking
availability
Business
Health/quality of life
Advertising
Consumer psychology
Consumers
Psychology of travel behaviour: A
microcosm of climate can(‘t) do
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‘If everyone made journeys of less than one
kilometre on foot rather than by car we’d save
millions of barrels of oil!’
What is wrong with this statement:
Who is all this energy saving for?
Where is the benefit at individual level?
What if ‘everyone’ else doesn’t do it?
What if I want to drive to the shop?
So what should we do?
1. Make it ‘sexy’ to take the bus
 New discourses of choice/freedom: ‘I have a
dream’ not ‘I have a nightmare’
2. Reduce need to travel
 Land-use planning – ever the Cinderella of
reducing transport emissions
= Focus on national/local gov, consumer
psychology, alternatives to travel
For more information
Environmental NGOs
• Transport & Environment
• Friends of the Earth Europe
• Greenpeace International
• Centre for Transport and Energy (Czech Rep.)
• BUND (Germany)
Academic centres
• Transport Mistra (Sweden)
• Centre for Transport and Society (UWE)
• Centre for Transport Policy (Aberdeen Business
School)
For more information
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Funder initiatives on climate change
Climate Change Philanthropy Network (CCPAN)
Climate and Energy Funders Network (US)
Forests Philanthropy Action Network
Design to Win collaboration
European Climate Foundation
Thank you for listening