[sustran] sign on: urge better emissions controls in WB handbook

[Lisa Peterson]

Dear all,

 

As many of you know, the World Bank has been developing a draft handbook to
provide guidance to countries dealing with vehicle-related pollution
problems.  (available at
http://www.cleanairnet.org/cai/1403/article-56396.html)

 

While the handbook has several good recommendations relating to traffic
demand management, modal shift, bus priority and elimination of leaded
gasoline, it misses the mark on the key issue of fuel and vehicle standards.

 

Please join the NRDC, ITDP and other groups in urging the World Bank to
revise this flawed document to include more appropriate recommendations for
fuel and vehicle standards.  The sign-on letter, to Bank President James D.
Wolfensohn and the Board of Directors, is available at
www.itdp.org/read/wbhandbooksignon.doc and pasted in this email below.

 

As it stands, the draft Handbook aids those who wish to derail or delay
efforts to improve fuel equality and reduce emissions.  It overemphasizes
obstacles to implementing improved standards while providing little guidance
to government ready to reduce their mobile source emissions. 

 

To sign on, please email or call me at lpeterson at itdp.org or 212-629-8001 by
Wednesday, April 7.

 

Best,

 

Lisa Peterson

 

Communications Director

Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

 

Subscribe to Sustainable Transport: www.itdp.org

 

115 West 30th Street, Suite 1205

New York, NY 10001

Ph: 212-629-8001

Fax: 212-629-8033

e-mail: lpeterson at itdp.org

 

 

April 2004

 

James D. Wolfensohn

President

World Bank

1818 H Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20433

 

Cc:  World Bank Board of Directors

 

            Re:       Urban Air Pollution: Policy Framework for Mobile
Sources

 

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn:

            

            Our organizations, representing citizens from dozens of
countries around the world, are writing to express our strong reservations
about the World Bank's draft document, "Urban Air Pollution: Policy
Framework for Mobile Sources" (the "Handbook").  

 

At the outset, we note that the World Bank staff responsible for preparing
the "Handbook" have recognized the importance of soliciting comments from
stakeholders at various forums both in Washington D.C. and around the world.
We also appreciate that the Handbook highlights the important role that
traffic demand management, modal shift, and bus priority measures can play
in mitigating air pollution from mobile sources.    We also agree with the
World Bank that eliminating leaded gasoline should be the first step to
reduce the pollution-based public health impacts of the world's motor
vehicles.  Since 1994, more than fifty nations have banned leaded gasoline,
representing more than 85 percent of the world's gasoline consumption.  We
also agree that a comprehensive approach to resolving urban air pollution
problems is necessary.  

 

However, we ultimately feel that a key concern expressed by the vast
majority of the handbook's critics is still not reflected in the most recent
draft of the Handbook.   This draft, by overemphasizing the uncertainties,
hurdles and costs of improving fuel and vehicle standards, aids those policy
makers seeking to delay or derail significant improvements in these
standards.  Meanwhile, the document offers limited support to those
decision-makers already committed to implementing these improvements or
considering fuel or vehicle standards for the first time.  

 

We urge you to delay the finalization of this report until our concerns have
been addressed adequately.  We would like to meet with you and your staff to
discuss these concerns in greater depth.  

 

            As you know, air pollution is a growing public health concern in
many developing countries.  This concern is heightened in the world's
growing mega-cities, which are highly likely to face even worse air
pollution and related public health impacts in the future, given current
trends in population growth, urbanization, vehicle ownership and traffic
congestion.  Thus, we appreciate the need for a comprehensive policy
framework to reduce vehicle pollution around the world.  

 

Numerous studies have documented the links between vehicle pollution and a
wide range of health impacts.  In many countries that are increasingly
relying on diesel vehicles, millions of people suffer from unnecessary
asthma attacks, cancer, heart and lung disease, and even premature deaths
that have been linked with diesel particulate soot pollution.  The World
Health Organization has recently estimated that outdoor air pollution caused
by vehicles and other sources is responsible for almost 800,000 premature
deaths each year, with most of those deaths occurring in developing
countries. In countries that still use leaded gasoline, children continue to
face the risk of mental retardation, impaired growth and, at high doses,
even death.  Even where unleaded gasoline is used, vehicle emissions are
contributing to an emerging ozone problem in many nations, which leads to
impaired lung function and significant forest, agricultural and other
environmental damage. 

 

Unfortunately, we fear that the World Bank's draft Handbook fails to provide
necessary leadership and guidance to those cities and countries that
grappling with vehicle-related pollution problems.  Indeed, we believe that
this draft document may undermine ongoing efforts in countries that are
already taking meaningful, cost-effective steps to reduce sulfur levels in
diesel and gasoline fuels and implement more stringent emission standards
that require catalytic converters and/or other emission control equipment.
Moreover, we are deeply troubled that this report could delay crucial first
steps in nations that have not begun to act. 

 

A growing number of policy makers recognize that a comprehensive approach to
reducing vehicle emissions must include sulfur reductions and more stringent
emission standards that require catalysts and/or other effective pollution
controls.  Indeed, most of the world's people live in developing countries
that are reducing sulfur levels below or more quickly than the standards and
timetables recommended in the World Bank's first draft Handbook, including
China, India, Thailand, Brazil, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Chile, and South
Africa.  Some of these nations are on a pathway towards ultra-low sulfur
levels and aggressive European or American emission standards.  Throughout
Africa, the Middle East and other regions, a debate about future sulfur and
emission standards is actively beginning.  Rather than assisting these
efforts, the current draft of the World Bank's Handbook aids those who wish
to derail or delay these efforts, by overemphasizing uncertainties, hurdles
and costs, while underemphasizing options to reduce those uncertainties,
hurdles and costs, as well as the significant health and environmental
benefits of lower sulfur levels and cleaner vehicles.

 

Reducing sulfur from diesel and gasoline fuels enables air quality and
public health improvements in two important ways.  First, when high-sulfur
fuels are used, sulfur is emitted as sulfur dioxide and sulfate particulate
matter, each of which has significant health and environmental impacts.
Second, low-sulfur fuels can enable catalyst and other emission control
technologies on existing and new vehicles.  At reduced sulfur levels, all
existing vehicles operate more cleanly and some catalyst technologies are
available to reduce a wide range of emissions.  At ultra-low sulfur levels,
catalyst and filtering technologies are available that can reduce almost all
smog-forming gases and diesel particulate soot in many instances.  Stated
simply, just as eliminating lead in gasoline enables the use of catalytic
converters to dramatically reduce a wide range of vehicle pollutants,
reducing sulfur levels in diesel and gasoline fuels enables catalysts and
other emission control systems that can dramatically reduce the wide range
of vehicle pollutants. 

 

To summarize, over the past few years, policy makers representing the
majority of the world's citizens have moved beyond the premises and
recommendations of the draft Handbook.  They have concluded that sulfur
levels in diesel and gasoline fuels need to be reduced, and that the
long-term goal of ultra-low sulfur levels and advanced emissions controls is
the right one.  Their conclusions are critical steps on path to a cleaner,
more sustainable transportation future.  In that context, the World Bank's
draft document represents a step backward, and a potential tool for those
who wish to derail or delay this global clean-up of vehicle fuels and
emissions. 

 

We strongly urge you to withhold the finalization of the Policy Framework
for Mobile Sources until we have had a chance to meet, and until the
document reflects our concerns. 

 

Very truly yours, 

 

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