Focus on sustainable transport at Abu Dhabi Environment Conference

'Mobility is essential to enable economies to develop and thrive, but along with these benefits, transport also brings a downside of emissions, congestion, safety hazards and noise,' says Ducan Eggar, BP's senior business advisor on sustainable mobility, who, together with Roger Alesbury, BP's director of Occupational Hygiene, both gave addresses yesterday (31/01/05) at the Environment Conference taking place at the Abu Dhabi International Exhibition Centre.

According to a World Business Council SMP report, growth in global transport from 2000 to 2050 will increase about 75 per cent in developed countries (members of the OECD) from 18 trillion passenger kilometres per year (pk/y) to 28 trillion pk/y, while in non-OECD countries it will more than triple from 14 to 45 trillion pk/y.

BP contends that the only way to achieve sustainable transportation in the developing world is for all stakeholders, including car manufacturers, energy companies, environmental groups, public authorities, academic experts, business organisations and customer groups, to work together to introduce clean fuels and vehicles in an accessible and affordable way.

Asserting that much much of the technology is already available, Eggar believes: 'By working together we can all help to create a cleaner environment for the future with better transportation, through improved infrastructure, better fuels, better lubricants, better vehicles and more efficient use of energy. We've learned in the past, and we'll continue to succeed in the future.'

The work undertaken by the World Business Council Sustainable Mobility Project (SMP) which has brought together 12 major global companies, including BP, has provided a good starting point for further discussion of the issue. Its set of indicators of sustainable mobility and goals have enabled BP to identify opportunities and options for addressing the problems of mobility which could enable developing countries to leapfrog developed nations by implementing new technologies and through inspired political leadership, says Eggar.

'At BP we believe that the most serious issue related to mobility is climate change and so we advocate the development of a new generation of fuels and also reducing demand be addressing the total energy position as a part of urban planning,' explains Eggar. 'There are also other important aspects of sustainable mobility that we also need to address, such as road safety, noise, congestion and social equity. Over the last three years BP has undertaken around 1250 such business activities that contributed to sustainable mobility, and the number is growing.'