The magnificent seven

Seven sustainability heroes form the core of the recent Strategy for sustainable freight transport by Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, or Umweltbundesamt (UBA). MindsinMotion.net sought out Martin Lambrecht, national expert on transport and environment at UBA, to delve deeper into the recommendations and find out why the measures are needed now more than ever.

The key strategic elements are:

• Spatial structural instruments
• Maintenance of capacity at current levels
• Further development of the heavy goods vehicle (HGV) road charge
• Optimisation of traffic flow through a general speed limit
• Increase in the capacity of rail infrastructure
• Reduction of noise exposure
• Limit values for exhaust gas emissions and CO2 for HGVs, trains and inland vessels

Combat
The German Federal Government forecasts road freight transport will increase 79 per cent between 2004 and 2025, but it hopes to cut greenhouse gas emissions by forty per cent by 2020. UBA research has found the transport sector must cut direct CO2 emissions by forty million tonnes by 2020, when compared with 2005, to contribute to this aim.

However, Martin says sustainability isn’t just about CO2 emissions. EU limits on fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide are being exceeded in many German inner cities, while millions of people suffer from sleep disorders and health risks due to the effects of loud freight traffic.

This is what Strategy for Sustainable Freight Transport aims to combat. UBA calculates that if the seven recommendations are taken on board, road freight transport will still have increased by nine per cent by 2020, but CO2 emissions would fall by 2.7 million tonnes and environment-compatible freight transport would be possible.

Impact
Primarily, the seven core recommendations of the strategy are about shifting freight from the road to the rail. But, looking first at recommendation number one, what exactly is a ‘spatial structural instrument’ anyway?

Martin cites a 'transport impact assessment' as an example. He says transport policy alone doesn’t dictate transport growth, so every single government measure to promote regional and economic development should be assessed according to its impact on transport.

Essential
Meanwhile, maintaining capacity simply means no more new roads.

“The overall road capacity should not rise, while absolute essential extensions to the network should result in scaling down road networks at other locations,” says Martin, while being coy about what an essential extension actually is.

Keep counting
The third proposal is that the current heavy goods vehicle (HGV) road charging system should take into account the external costs of road freight transport – including infrastructure, environmental, health and accident costs. It should also be levied on all HGVs over 3.5 tonnes, on all roads, and be time-differentiated.

But not so fast
Martin says a general speed limit of 120 km/h on motorways is something UBA has been championing for years. This would apply for cars mainly, because HGVs are already subject to stricter speed limits.

“This speed limit will optimise traffic flow, avoid accidents and therefore reduce congestion. Overall this would increase motorway capacity and ease the need to build new roads,” says Martin.

Follow the tracks
Perhaps the most important of UBA’s recommendations is number five, an expansion of the rail network.

Martin says Germany spends most of its railway investments on tracks for high-speed passenger traffic, but this money should be refocused on re-commissioning, modernising and extending the rail network.

However, the proposed significant shift is only justifiable if noise emissions in rail transport are reduced rapidly through mandatory maximum exposure levels and emission-related track access charges.

All in the mix
Last, but not least, is the implementation of technical measures to limit exhaust emissions for HGVs, trains and inland vessels.

“All measures are essential. The mix of all seven packages is necessary in order to achieve the environmental objectives set by the EU and the Federal Government. There’s no golden bullet,” says Martin.

Let’s see if the gun-slinging UBA can find its target with each of its seven ambitious shots to achieve sustainable freight transport.

More information

• English summary of the UBA report
• fact sheet