MindsinMotion.net jubilee

This October it is five years ago that the then Dutch presidency of the European Union (EU) organised the EU conference Energy in Motion: EU journey towards sustainable mobility. The 'home of sustainable mobility on the net', MindsinMotion.net, was built for the occasion.

We'll be looking back this month, but we wouldn't be MindsinMotion.net if we weren't looking forward as well.

In a short series, a range of conference speakers (or representatives of their organisations) will share their thoughts on sustainable mobility with our community once more. They'll talk about their expectations at the time, success and disappointment, and about their ideas for the nearby and the far future.

Context
Energy security, climate change, air quality and the Lisbon targets were the four factors compelling Europe to innovate five years ago and they still are. They were also the reasons to hold the conference, the purpose of which was to:

• exchange views and to explore possible alliances between governments, industry, NGOs and other parties;
• formulate recommendations for the work programme of the new European Commission, which would take office on November 1st, 2004.

Line-up
The crème de la crème was present in 2004: Directors General responsible for transport, energy and the environment of EU Member States, high ranking officials from the European Commission, Japan and the USA, and executive representatives from the automotive industry, global energy suppliers, international organisations, the scientific community and non-governmental organisations.

Who spoke then and who will help evaluating five years later? You'll find out in the weeks to come.

Transport economist Piet Rietveld

Let's start with a scientific point of view.

Then speaker Jeroen van den Bergh, who is an environmental economist, is now working on different topics. However, we spoke to spatial and transport economist Piet Rietveld of VU University Amsterdam, who was one of van den Bergh's co-authors on Innovations for Sustainable Transport. A journey through success and fail factors.

“I remember we had ten different cases, successes and failures alike,” says Rietveld. “They led to a very broad range of conclusions as well.” In the conference presentation it says: “Political/process & social-cultural/psychological factors [are] decisive for successes and failures: emphasis on technical & economic factors [is] misplaced.” Has that changed in five years time?

“First of all, it would be a misunderstanding to think that the latter factors don't play any part,” says Rietveld, “but, alas, not much has changed.”

Pitfalls
Government programme Anders betalen voor mobiliteit ('Paying differently for mobility' – since a combination of the words 'kilometre' and 'levy' is taboo) is a good example.

“After twenty years of preparations, we know that economically this is a viable solution. Technically it can be done as well – various other countries have similar systems – but public acceptance is still a problem. Only now that there is a wide platform of supporters, including a coalition with [Dutch car owners' and car industry associations] ANWB, RAI and BOVAG, is the programme likely to succeed. And still, even with the existing agreement that the system will be instated, the minister has to gently manoeuvre around the pitfalls,” says Rietveld.

Cynic
“However, every case is unique,” he continues. “In the past five years a new case has come up: electric cars. Success or failure in this case is not a question of political support so much as a technological matter. Although,” he adds, “political support in the form of an introductory subsidy could be necessary.

One could argue whether the Netherlands should want to be a frontrunner in this case,” Rietveld adds. “A cynic would point out that there is a small market here and no production of electric cars. A country can also wait for other countries to introduce subsidies and profit from the spill-over. That is why European countries should cooperate. Standardisation, of batteries for instance, is important.

“We economists are often the ones raining on the parade. I'd also ask 'Why would we want to subsidise at all?' Electric driving mustn't become a goal in itself, it must be an efficient way towards sustainable transport. But it could also prove to have unwanted effects. An electric car is likely to be a small urban car, so it could easily become a second car for two-car households. And once a second car is there, it gets used.

“Funnily enough, today or tomorrow we'll hear whether we are to receive a grant from the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) to start a major study on electric cars. So hopefully that is what I'll be doing in the near future. By the way, Jeroen van den Bergh will cooperate as well.”