[sustran] Bicycles as environmental goods - Fair Transport Labeling?

[Eric Britton (Paris)]

Carlos Felipe Pardo wrote this group on Sat 4/29/2006 (see below for
full text and article) about  how if at all we might support the
"labeling" of bicycles as "environment goods".  Indeed this is a matter
which has been getting more general attention around here, including the
possibility of some kind of eco-labeling of carshare vehicles.

 

More than that, the somewhat purposefully copycat link between Fair
Transport and Fair Trade suggests that once we have some kind of
credible base for Fair Transport (and indeed the New Mobility Agenda may
be a good enough start to get us going, especially if we can get the
right kind of credible partner support for something along these lines),
there is no reason for us to not at least consider the concept of Fair
Trade Labeling.  Here are some first thoughts on that:

 

Fair Transport 

A New Mobility Agenda for a Changing World

 

(Note to reader/friends: This is a quick thinking exercise for a concept
which may be worth pursuing.  I would be grateful to have your comments
and suggestions, for any of what follows as well as your ideas on the
concept and eventual next steps more generally. And since this is so
very rough and incomplete, I thank you for keeping this at this early
point between us.  Ericbritton)

 

Fair Transport Labeling:

 

Fair transport is similar to the now old and often confusing concept of
sustainable transport, but it is more focused and less general.
Specifically, it gives us the base for a kind of eco-labeling concept
that has certain similarities with Fairtrade labeling (see below for a
short definition), but it is entirely focused on the identification and
support of concepts and programs that are able to meet or show
meaningful progress in terms of a certain number of specific performance
and other social, economic and technical parameters. 

 

Fairtrade labelling (usually simply fairtrade, fair trade, Fair Trade or
fair trade certified) is a  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand> brand
designed to allow  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers> consumers to
identify goods (especially agricultural products such as
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee> coffee) which meet agreed
standards. The system involves independent auditing of producers to
ensure standards are met. Companies offering products that meet the fair
trade standards are licensed to use the fair trade label. Standards are
set by the independent NGO Fairtrade Labelling Organizations
International (FLO on behalf of a number of national bodies (such as the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fairtrade_Foundation> Fairtrade
Foundation in the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom> UK) for
each type of product. Typically standards cover
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Labor_standard&action=edit>
labor standards,  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_standard>
environmental standards, and stable pricing.

 

>From  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairtrade>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairtrade  (with some slight
rearrangement):

 

 

  

Who/what qualifies eventually for Fair Transport labeling:

*	Types of vehicles  (For example, maybe bikes yes. Segway
probably no. Electric bikes ??)
*	Specific vehicles
*	Power and fuel sources
*	Transportation systems (such as LRT, BRT, etc.)

*	Types of services (ex. Carsharing)

*	Production systems

*	Innovative Programs that advance the Fair Transport agenda?
International, national, local, NGOs. Examples?

 

Criteria:

*	Current availability
*	Favor human contact (as opposed to machine contact)
*	Low cost to users
*	Low or at least competitive support costs to collectivity
*	Low resource consumption
*	Low environmental impacts
*	Social impacts
*	Impact analysis
*	Impact positively on city structures, neighborhoods
*	Labor, job creation, skill building

*	Ease of recycling at end of product life

 

Funding:

*	Organizational costs (slim)
*	Eventual prizes?

 

 

First rounds of prizes:??  (maybe we need to figure out 10 or so year
for critical media mass)

*	Monderman concept
*	Bike program (Lyons?)
*	Other?
*	Some historical prize (example Amsterdam White Bike?)

 

Some Fair Transport Label credibility questions: 

1. How meaningful would a Fair Transport label be?

2. How do we verify that the label standards are met?

3. Is the meaning of the label consistent?

4. Are the label standards publicly available?

5. Is information about the organization publicly available?

6. Is the organization behind the label free from conflict of interest?

7. Was the label developed with broad public and unbiased expert input?

 

Some notes, points, possibilities for comment:

 

*	Should there be "levels of qualification (to encourage
processes)?
*	Re-verification process (i.e., label will need periodic
updating?)
*	Who pays the cost of making this happen?
*	When, where to give the prizes?
*	Where to start?
*	Sponsors?
*	International Advisory Council??-
http://www.ecoplan.org/kyoto/challenge/panel.htm
*	The New Mobility Agenda?? the international organization
responsible for Fair Transport labeling world-wide.
http://www.fairtransport.org <http://www.fairtransport.org/>  

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Carlos F. Pardo
SUTP
Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2006 12:15 AM
To: carfree_cities at yahoogroups.com; NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NewMobilityCafe] Bicycles as environmental goods

 

Nice info, maybe we could find a way to support? Letters signed by many
parties, etc.

 

Source: http://itdp.org/STe/ste21/wto.html 

 


 



WTO Negotiations Open Possibility of Defining Bicycles as Environmental
Goods

 


By Matthew Sholler


 


Current efforts to designate bikes as "environmentally preferable
products" free of tariffs
and other trade barriers have gone largely unnoticed by the
international bicycling community.


 


Organizations promoting bicycle use at the international level may have
a new avenue to do so -- through the liberalization of trade in
bicycles, bicycle parts and components, and bicycle accessories that
could result from the World Trade Organization's (WTO) current
negotiations on environmental goods and services. 

The mandate for these negotiations comes from the so-called Doha
Development Agenda (DDA), issued by trade ministers at the WTO
Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2002.  Paragraph
31(iii) of the DDA calls for the reduction or elimination of tariff and
non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services.  WTO ministers
did not, however, define what constitutes an "environmental good", so
the negotiations have moved forward largely on the basis of lists of
suggested goods by WTO member economies.  

One sub-category of products is referred to as "environmentally
preferable products", or EPPs, deemed superior to close substitutes
because of the way they are produced, used or disposed of.

At the end of 2004, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) was asked by its member countries to prepare a study
of EPPs, concentrating on products whose liberalization would benefit
developing countries, either through improved environmental outcomes or
increased trade in the product. The bicycle emerged as one of the three
EPPs the OECD Secretariat chose to study in depth. 
(A copy of the report may be found here:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/19/35841725.pdf)

In mid-2005, Switzerland, an OECD member country, submitted its own list
of proposed environmental goods to the WTO, which included bicycles,
bicycle parts and components, and certain accessories. The Swiss
proposal has been met with mixed reactions by other member countries,
many of which are represented in WTO negotiations by representatives
from trade ministries who do not grasp the bicycle's environmental
relevance.  Others, usually from environment ministries, have generally
been more supportive of the idea.     

As of this writing, no definitive common list of environmentally goods
has been agreed by WTO negotiators. There may still be an opportunity
for bicycle advocates to tell their countries' WTO delegates just how
important it is to grant "environmental good" status to bicycles, parts
and accessories.

 





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