A new white paper has indicated the EU remains committed to safeguarding the environment, but will no longer penalise road users in its efforts to do so.

The European Commission has conducted a review of its transport policy outlined in 2001 and has stayed faithful to its aims of reducing congestion and emissions, but issues such as increasing globalisation and rising oil prices have forced a change of tack.

The main changes it outlined include a new focus on limiting the negative effects of transport growth, as opposed to limiting growth itself.

Rather than actively discouraging road use, the new focus will be on encouraging uptake of alternative transport forms.

The commission also promised future action on the matters of reducing oil usage in transport (which accounts for 71 per cent of total European oil usage) and on persuading local government to confront congestion and pollution in urban areas.

However, the policy change has come in for criticism from some quarters, with the European Federation for Transport and Environment claiming it is badly flawed and does not indicate exactly how emissions will be reduced.

A platinum catalyst is used in diesel engines, which have greater fuel economy than petrol driven equivalents.

Platinum and other pgms are used in many autocatalyst technologies designed to tackle emissions.

Ÿ Adfero Ltd