Transport policy has moved to the forefront of EC Environment Ministers thinking in recent years. That transport now occupies a prime position in the environmental debate is welcome because the effects are many, varied and enormous in scale, affecting individuals, whole communities and all of industry.

Europe claimed the moral high ground at Kyoto by promising to make major cuts (8%) in emissions of global warming gases by 2010. Nevertheless, the EC predicts that traffic growth will result in a 39% increase in emissions of carbon dioxide from transport by 2010. Two major issues facing EC Ministers are the need to encourage reduced car travel by individuals and to ensure that the fuel economy of vehicles is improved.

EC Environment and Transport Ministers met informally together during April in the ancient English city of Chester during the UK Presidency. The deputy UK prime minister, John Prescott, would like to see greater integration of environment and transport policy making within the European Community and the creation of a single Directorate General for the two areas for which a single EC Commissioner would then be responsible. Such a development would not only give formal political recognition to the increasingly recognised interaction between these two important policy areas, but might also provide real political mechanisms for the creation of more sustainable transport policies.

Ministers addressed a number of areas intended to cut pollution from transport including: the harmonisation of rail systems, liberalisation of rail freight regimes, and promoting the use of low or zero emission vehicles in city centres. A recent OECD study, however, indicates that most car buyers are not interested in fuel economy so fuel tax rises may be needed to influence consumer behaviour - unless manufacturers can dramatically improve the fuel economy of their vehicles.

It is sometimes easier to make new policy than to solve the real practical difficulties associated with sustainability. Taxation is likely to prove perhaps the greatest area of difficulty for integrating environmental and transport policies, given the current dependence of European governments on the tax revenues generated from road transport. The UK Treasury, according to the Financial Times has, for example, already retreated from a pledge to allow money raised from new transport charges (tax) to be spent on improving public transport and infrastructure, and instead insisted it would only agree on a case-by-case basis. As a general rule, Treasury Minister, Dawn Primarolo, told the House of Commons Environment Committee that the Treasury did not believe that the hypothecation of taxes is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Freedom of choice in the selection of travel mode according to personal preference is, however, another quite different area over which policymakers must exert greater influence.

It is a great pity that EC Ministers have thus far mostly failed to set an appropriate example in minimising the need for travel through the use of improved communications technology. While much criticism was directed at the use of motor cars to transport Ministers from Manchester airport to Chester for, it was claimed, logistical reasons, few questioned why such an inconvenient location had been chosen for such an important meeting, and even fewer asked why a virtual conference could not been held. If EC Ministers with all the resources at their disposal cannot organise a videoconference and set an example by avoiding the need for unnecessary travel and its associated pollution and resource use, then their admonishments to the rest of us carry less weight they should. It is all very well politicians announcing to the world that we (everyone else that is) should change our lifestyles but they must also do so themselves.

EC Ministers and their officials should at least read and then act on the advice in the chapter in Factor Four* - on revolutionsing transport productivity. This begins by describing several examples of the use of videoconferencing where its use has eliminated the heavy travel burden and ecological rucksacks associated with regularly held business meetings involving participants from far flung areas. The UK's National Economic Research Association estimates that by the year 2007, videoconferencing could replace 20% of business travel. Some global companies, such as BP, started to use videoconferencing as long as 15 years ago. With continuing falls in the cost of the necessary technology, and its greater availability, there is now little excuse for international organisations not to adopt videoconferencing. For governmental and public European institutions with environmental responsibilities, and the necessary resource capability, there is no excuse for not using videoconferencing.

Less than a quarter of the energy from motor fuel is used to propel the vehicle and a 1993 OECD report indicates that fuel consumption could be improved by up to 25% using the best available technologies. European carmakers recently volunteered to a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles by 2008. Continuing pressure on industry is perhaps more likely to be politically expedient than very big increases in fuel taxes given recent experience in Germany. The Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), part of the centre-right coalition, has recently fallen with out with the larger Christian Democratic Union, over a call for higher energy taxes and threatened to fight this autumn's general election on its own platform as a result. This in turn could lead to a resurgence of support for the German Green Party which itself suffered badly in recent municipal elections, partly as a result of its plans for a tripling of motor fuel prices within 10 years, and calls by its tourism policy specialist, Ms Saibold, for big increases in jet fuel prices so that Germans could only afford to fly on holiday once every five years.

EC Ministers will no doubt assimilate the political lessons to be had from the unpopularity at the polls of the policies of the German Green Party. That, however, does not excuse them from the obligations of leadership and the responsibility of setting good examples. If Ministers led more by their own personal and collective example then ordinary people might themselves more frequently question the necessity for selecting the motor car for their own personal and business travel needs. That would also help to demonstrate that policy can be turned into practice in this very important area.

*Factor Four - Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (ISBN - 1-85383-407-6; £15.99 ) By Ernst von Weisacker et al. Published by Earthscan Publications Limited 1997.