The FIA Foundation is to host a major symposium on global fuel economy issues, together with the International Energy Agency (IEA), International Transport Forum (ITF) and the UN Environment Programme.

The invitation-only symposium aims to promote discussion of the scope of a global approach to automotive fuel economy issues and the building blocks for a coherent and cost effective international policy framework. It will be held on 15th and 16th May in Paris, and will bring together around 60 leading experts, policy makers and stakeholders. 

With the world motor vehicle fleet forecast to double over the next twenty years and growing international concern about the combined challenges of improving air quality, avoiding dangerous climate change, and reducing fossil fuel consumption, automotive fuel economy is now a major issue confronting the world community especially the G8 leading industrialized countries, the European Union, and the world’s rapidly motorizing nations such as China and India.

To date policies to promote fuel economy have been developed mainly at a national or regional level. However, as the trends of globalization of the motor vehicle industry increase, there is potential to develop a more global approach to automotive fuel economy to encourage technology transfer and cost effectiveness in a growing global market for both cleaner and less carbon intensive motor vehicles. Such a sectoral approach could also be relevant to the post 2012 Kyoto protocol discussions within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The symposium programme will include discussion of the global trends in automotive fuel economy, the potential contribution of fuel and vehicle technologies to reduce fossil fuel consumption, the role of fuel economy testing, labelling and standards, and of market mechanisms and pathways towards a global policy framework. Speakers will include amongst others, Mike Walsh of ICCT, Axel Freidrich of the German Federal Environment Agency, and Kelly Sims Gallagher of MIT and author of China Shifts Gears: Automakers, Oil, Pollution, and Development.

Contacts:

Avi Silverman FIA Foundation +44 796 72 29 374 a.silverman@fiafoundation.org