News

Volvo Trucks is part of a group that aims to halve the climate impact of a typical Swedish long-haul transport operation by 2020 through reduced CO2 emissions. The group has already presented a report, entitled Climate Neutral Goods Transports on their Way, to the Swedish Ministry of the Environment it is now preparing a joint project to test the various suggested  improvements.

These include:

• Intensifying efforts to increase fuel-efficient driving (FED) the Swedish Road Administration, Vägverket, will increase demands for FED on all those aiming to take their driving licence from 2008
• Increasing the amount of renewable fuels by partly replacing crude oil with biomass at the refining stage and increasing blends of RME (Rapeseed Methyl Ester) and diesel
• Investigating the conditions required to increase the length of load carriers beyond the country's current 25.25m as a means of reducing CO2 emissions

The group, which also includes the largest oil company in Sweden, Preem Petroleum AB, is encouraging more participants from industry and society. A UK Volvo Trucks spokesman says: "There are similar things going on in the UK, in terms of the [260-strong, action and advisory group] Low Carbon Vehicle  Partnership. At the moment they have so many involved it's almost derailed itself.

"In Sweden they are more proactive, the government is more directly involved and it is more focused. They have had a vision of doing away with oil dependency all together."