MindsinMotion.net jubilee: reminiscing with Greg Archer of LowCVP

Director Greg Archer of UK-based Low Carbon Vehicle Group (LowCVP) is glad we asked him to look back five years to his presentation at the 2004 EU conference Energy in Motion: EU journey towards sustainable mobility.

Archer was appointed only three months before he gave his presentation. “I'm pleased to see we've come through with so many of the goals we stated at the time,” he says.

Label
“Back then we'd just started working on a labelling scheme for new cars. A year later it was introduced on a voluntary basis.

“Our research shows that since then consumer awareness of the label and concern about the fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions of vehicles has grown. 95 per cent of British car dealers are using the label now, which is a remarkable level of compliance for a voluntary scheme. 88 per cent of new cars is labelled. As of 2nd November we'll be expanding the scheme into the 'nearly new' market and have already signed up over five hundred dealers into the scheme.

“The range of media using the label has also broadened. For example; it is now also used on websites, in car magazines,” Archer adds.

Is the adoption of the label accompanied by increased knowledge by dealers? Archer: “We track dealer attitudes through 'mystery shoppers' who go in and ask about fuel economy and what the label means. Our research shows dealers are making increasing use of the label and fuel economy benefits in their sales pitch.

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“We are currently planning research into other ways of displaying CO2 information, for instance on bill boards and in newspapers and magazines. Legal requirements involve only the mentioning of absolute CO2 emissions at the bottom of ads – information that no one understands. We want future EU regulations to be designed in a way that provides meaningful information to consumers and to raise the level of discussion beyond the size of the font on advertisements.”

The circle of bioethanol life

“A second goal at the time,” Archer reminisces, “was understanding the life cycle emissions of producing bioethanol from wheat. At the time this was a major breakthrough. All research produced different answers and the common view was that that was because of different methodologies. We showed different bioethanol production methods had a profound effect on the level of greenhouse gas emissions produced from biofuels.

This led us to press for:

• biofuels with better greenhouse gas savings to be rewarded
• minimum sustainability criteria
• and a programme of work to develop the World’s first carbon and sustainability reporting scheme for biofuels.

In April 2008 the scheme was lauched as part of the UK Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) and subsequently had a considerable influence on the form of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) and Fuel Quality Directive (FQD).

“Our basic piece of work had significant outcomes. When we started it was claimed you could not track the origin of biofuel feedstock. The UK, using our scheme, demonstrated this could be done practically paving the way for the new EU requirements.

This was always our ultimate aim,” Archer admits, “but we never anticipated a European directive so quickly.”

Wish list
Back in 2005 the partnership also had on its agenda the creation of a not for profit Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies. Archer: “That was launched in spring 2005, as planned, and is called CENEX. It now has a staff of fifteen and operates a range of research and demonstration programmes and has an important role in the electrification of transport.”

Building consensus
“All in all, I think we can be pleased with our achievement,” says Archer. “Of course, building consensus is difficult and slow. We've learned that good evidence is needed and our efforts are focused on compiling this evidence in a form that can be used for policy development.

“Five years ago there was very limited global action on CO2 emissions and transport was considered a difficult sector to get any results. Now reducing transport emissions is accepted as an essential element of achieving long-term climate goals. Back in 2004 regulations were largely at a national level, now we have a host of progressive EU Directives. In the UK there has been a huge increase in Government funding of low carbon vehicles and fuels and new organisations supporting the agenda including CENEX, the Technology Strategy Board, the Carbon Trust, Energy Technology Institute, et cetera,” says Archer.

Keep up the good work
He continues: “We're not a big organisation, we have six staff, but our membership has grown from 141 in 2004 to 350 now and with this increase our influence has grown. We've changed our legal structure: we are now a not for profit organisation and are applying to be a charity.”

Archer ponders: “In the next three years we'll probably focus more on early market introduction and tackling barriers to the growth of low carbon technologies in the market.

“But we'll also still be active in the field of consumer awareness, understanding and acceptance of low carbon vehicles,” he says. “We'll be helping small and medium sized enterprises with clean technology and will be monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of legislation and programmes, of which there is a huge amount these days. Five years ago the Transport Department had a couple of millions for research and development, now the Technology Strategy Board has a hundred million pound programme. We're currently evaluating a public procurement programme and we're busy in the field of low carbon buses as well.

“There is also an ongoing debate about the respective roles of technologies and managing demand in reducing emissions which we shall help to address,” he adds.

Pass the baton
Archer concludes with a question to one of our next interviewees: Ivan Hodac:

“What you presented in 2004 became known as the integrated approach and lead to the Cars 21 process. The motor industry back then argued that more had to be done about infrastructure, integrated regulation et cetera, instead of focusing on vehicle technology. Looking back do you think real progress has been made on the integrated approach and Cars21 actually changed anything?”

Earlier on MindsinMotion.net

• Archer's aims for LowCVP
• Archer shares LowCVP's successes and struggles