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February 2006
In This Issue 3. Green Business roadshow by Solent Energy Efficiency Advice Centre 6. Sustainable Business Partnership
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European News
New EU Urban Environment Strategy
The European Commission has published its long-awaited Thematic Strategy on the urban environment. The Strategy aims to improve the environmental quality of urban areas, by facilitating the local-level implementation of EU environment legislation through the exchange of experience and good practice amongst local authorities.
The Commission had originally considered proposing legislation requiring all cities of 100,000+ inhabitants to implement integrated environmental management and sustainable urban transport plans. The Commission has now decided that legislation is not appropriate due to the diversity of urban areas and existing national, regional and local obligations, and will instead provide guidance on these topics for member states and local authorities.
Public Sector Green Transport
The European Commission has presented a proposal for a Directive which will require public bodies to spend 25% of their budget for procuring vehicles on buying clean vehicles. The rules would apply to vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, and would affect bodies such as national, regional and local authorities, bodies governed by public law, public undertakings and transport service operators contracted by public bodies. The Directive would allow a public body or operator to focus on a particular category of vehicle for greening, for example buses or bin lorries. The Commission anticipates that the rules should add between 5 and 16% of additional costs to local authorities' transport budgets. The Commission will also consider whether to extend the quota obligation to other categories of vehicles in the future.
According to EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, the proposed Directive should lead to the purchase of around 13,000 new ‘greener’ vehicles per year, which would create a stable market for such vehicles to encourage manufacturers to invest in developing them. The Directive will encourage the development of vehicles adapted to alternative energy sources such as high blends of biofuels, natural gas, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), hydrogen, electric motors and hybrid vehicles combining a combustion engine with an electric motor.
This information was provided by Euroflash written by Ben Whitehouse b.whitehouse@hwws.seeh.net