Here is a sobering thought:

The number of motor vehicles on the world’s roads will likely double from 2010 levels — increasing from 1.4 billion to approximately 2.8 billion cars, trucks, motorcycles, on-road, non-road, and off-road vehicles – by 2030.

So, one of the reasons for this blog is to continue to put things into perspective; specifically, to reduce what it is that we do into the lowest common denominator, which is:

…helping decision-makers make the best choices concerning their transportation policy, so that air quality, public health, and global climate change problems can be controlled.

It goes without saying then, that without strong policies worldwide to improve the energy efficiency of and minimize the pollutant emissions from those vehicles, the consequences of such explosive growth in the transportation sector could be catastrophic.

We do know that well-designed regulations – based on accurate data – work.

As an example:

Over the past ten years, policies implemented in the European Union (EU) and China have begun to stabilize CO2 emissions from cars and light trucks, even as the actual vehicle fleet has continued to grow. Unfortunately, this victorious accomplishment misses the goal of the required reductions in global GHG emissions from transportation needed to reduce the average global temperature to 2º C.

Therefore – timely, accurate, cost-effective data and information are critical to resolving transportation and environmental issues on a global scale.

Over the next few weeks, we will begin to examine various groups around the globe as they begin to tackle these challenges, as well as to explore a few different countries and their respective programs…