THE EUROPEAN Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) will discuss the environment for the first time at its meeting in Paris this week. Officials say the move is 'a very significant step forwards'. Sweden first suggested discussing the environment about a year ago. It originally wanted a joint meeting between the transport ministers and their environmental counterparts. However, the transport ministers, drawn from 19 Western European countries, preferred to meet alone.
The British junior minister, Michael Portillo, will chair the meeting in Paris. The draft communique of the meeting recognises the link between pollution from motor vehicles and global warming. In industrialised countries, motor vehiclesaccount for about a third of carbon dioxide emissions.
The communique also recognises the link between pollution from motor vehicles and air quality. On city streets, almost all the airborne carbon monoxide comes from motor vehicles, as do around half of the nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons. ...
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