On Friday 05 February, 2015, Ricardo Energy & Environment’s Air Quality & Environment practice hosted Julie Girling, MEP for South West England and Gibraltar, to discuss the key issues affecting air pollution, agriculture and transport emissions policy in Europe.
Mrs Girling’s visit came a few days after the European Parliament’s vote in favour of introducing real driving emissions (RDE), a method for testing car emissions that better reflects a vehicle’s use on the road. As the European Parliament’s ‘rapporteur’ for the National Emissions Ceilings Directive (NECD), Mrs Girling used the visit to discuss her support for RDE as a tool to improve air quality, alongside her wider priorities in national pollution control throughout Europe. Mrs Girling also met Ricardo Energy & Environment’s agriculture and National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) teams who shared technical insight into their work supporting the UK to monitor and report air emissions data.
“I was delighted to discuss my work in environmental policy with the team at Ricardo, particularly following the European Parliament’s decision to press forward with real driving emissions”, said Julie Girling. “The EU relies on the insight of scientists and technical experts to help shape and define policy, and I think there’s widespread acceptance across the scientific community that RDE is a step in the right direction for making vehicle testing more applicable, reducing pollutant emissions and improving air quality in Europe”.
Ricardo Energy & Environment provides a range of emissions monitoring services to countries, regions and organisations across Europe, including supporting the European Commission on a wide variety of policy studies, helping Gibraltar to meet its EU air quality obligations and working with Heathrow Airport Ltd to monitor black carbon in the atmosphere. The Ricardo group also supports the development of sustainable transport across the world with a variety of policy, infrastructure and technological solutions. This includes recent investment in the Ricardo Vehicle Emissions Research Centre (VERC) – a world-class facility focussed on advancing next-generation low-carbon and low-polluting technology.
Sean Christiansen, Air Quality & Environment practice director, said: “I would like to thank Julie for taking the time to discuss her work and ambitions for air quality in Europe with us. The emissions, modelling and measurement evidence that is generated by our specialists is key to informing decision makers such as Julie and supporting sound policy and strategy development at the national and international level. As such it is critical that our teams maintain a dialogue with those on the frontline of such policy development, helping to ensure that we continue to deliver the technical evidence and policy support necessary to help achieve air quality goals.”
Find out more about how Ricardo Energy & Environment’s team of consultants, scientists and engineers is supporting countries and organisations with effective solutions to their air quality and environmental challenges at http://ee.ricardo.com/cms/services-3/
Media contact:
David Williams
Ricardo Energy & Environment
Tel: +44 (0)1235 753 112
E-mail: David.Williams@ricardo.com
