March 9, 2007
Carbon reduction begins at home
If there’s one thing that Brussels can teach the world, it’s how to move VIPs around fast.
Most days you’ll hear sirens as elite police outriders clear the roads so that motorcades of black Mercedes and Audis can whisk visiting presidents and prime ministers to meetings.
The police teams are certainly effective at sweeping through the city’s clogged streets. One diplomat told me of a hair-raising seven-minute journey in a convoy from the airport to the EU district during rush hour. Ordinarily, that car ride would take 25 minutes in light traffic.
With an EU summit finishing today, the city is in the grip of a motorcade frenzy as national leaders zoom into the European quarter to commit to reducing greenhouse gases - a defining moment in the EU’s environmental agenda.
Perhaps they should start by cutting back on the carbon-spewing limos.
On my way to the tram stop this week a motorcade roared past. I’ve no idea who was inside because it had the de rigueur blacked-out windows. But there were perhaps seven or eight vehicles in the convoy.
On that basis, the 27 national leaders, and ministers, diplomats and officials, will use a total of at least 200 (probably diesel) cars…to travel to and from a crunch meeting on slashing carbon emissions. Anyone for the tram?
