Final Sustainable Mobility report to be launched in Summer 2004

The Sustainable Mobility Project is now entering its final stage. The final reports set out to answer the challenges laid out in Mobility 2001, which was a snapshot of mobility & sustainability at the end of the 20th century, a golden age of transport with such innovations as motor vehicle and aeroplane.

(PRWEB) March 5, 2004 -- The Sustainable Mobility Project is now entering its final stage. The final reports, to be launched in Summer 2004, set out to answer the challenges laid out in the Project's first report, Mobility 2001. This was a snapshot of mobility and sustainability at the end of the 20th century, a golden age of transport with such innovations as the motor vehicle and the aeroplane.

Since the publication of Mobility 2001, the Project has been working to understand the future magnitude of these challenges and how they might be overcome. The final reports will address these concerns and set out solutions, that with society's agreement and involvement, might ensure a sustainable future for land transport.

While most people enjoyed unprecedented personal mobility, the researchers for the report found that not everybody was sharing equally in these benefits. In the developed world, the poor and elderly found difficulty in gaining access to goods and services and ,where they could, sometimes found it unaffordable. In the developing world, the trends that were resulting in improved personal and goods accessibility for many people were also threatening the personal and good accessibility for other parts of the population.

Other threats to mobility's sustainability included:

greenhouse gases
conventional emissions
road deaths and injuries
noise, congestion
land use
energy consumption
Current plans are to launch the reports on 28 June in Europe, the USA and Japan. The Brussels launch for Europe will be held in one of the central Commission buildings and will be attended by the WBCSD, Commission officials, the media and the sponsoring companies. Sir Phil Watts, the Chairman of Shell, a former President of the WBCSD and one of the three founding fathers of the Project in April, 2000, will be in the chair.

There will be three copies of the report: an Executive Summary of four pages, an Overview of 24 pages and the Full Report of 200 pages. There will also be a CD Rom, containing all three reports.

The Overview and Full Report have reached final drafting stage and will shortly be sent to the 12 sponsoring companies for their final approval. The Assurance Group has also reviewed the texts. The reports will be signed off in the next few weeks.

If you are intersted in receiving a print copy of the final report, please contact Claudia Schweizer at schweizer@wbcsd.org