1. WP.29 Activities on Fuel Efficiency and the UNECE project on Global Warming and Transport
Presentation at the 21st session of the
Working Party on Transport Trends and Economics (WP.5)
By Romain HUBERT, UNECE Transport Division,
Vehicle Regulations and Transport Innovations
As you know, road transport is a complex system with implications on road safety and security, energy consumption and the environment. In the past, Governments realized that it was a crucial need to harmonize internationally the requirements in order to facilitate border crossing and trade of vehicles and to update regulations constantly in order to cover new technologies. This is exactly the mandate of the World Forum on the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (so-called WP.29).
In May 2008, Transport Ministers discussed at the 1st International Transport Forum in Leipzig the challenge of climate change and considered the need to reduce the transport CO2 emissions, currently about 30% of the global man-made CO2 emissions, by a minimum of 50% at latest in 2050.
Thus, Transport Ministers agreed on a number of key messages aimed at:
- decarbonising the transport sector and;
- focussing on transport policy measures that generate the highest returns in terms of CO2 emissions and improvements to national data quality.
In their key messages, Transport Ministers also urged the World Forum to accelerate the development of common methodologies, test cycles and measurement methods for vehicles. Other factors, as the increasing fuel prices, also require the World Forum to strengthen the fuel efficiency of motor vehicles. As a result:
- a first milestone will be an increased vehicle fuel efficiency of 20% in the next few years,
- a second milestone will be the full introduction into the global market of EFV in 2020,
- the full introduction of electric vehicles will become the last milestone in 2050.
I will present you, in a first part, the structure of the World Forum WP.29, its activities in the development of vehicle regulations with regard to fuel efficiency, new propulsion systems for greener vehicles such hybrid-electric vehicles or as hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles.
This presentation aims also at introducing you, in a second part, to the UNECE activities on a new project initiated by our transport division on “Global Warming and Transport”.
9 September 2008
UNECE Transport Division
9 September 2008

2. World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29)
As you know, the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29), previously known as the Working Party on the Construction of Vehicles, was established on 6 June 1952.
The World Forum reports, as WP.5, to the Inland Transport Committee and administers 3 Agreements:
the 1958 Agreement on uniform conditions of approval for wheeled vehicles and their reciprocal recognition;
the 1998 Global Agreement on global technical regulations (gtrs) also for the construction of wheeled vehicles;
the 1997 Agreement on uniform conditions for the periodical technical inspections of wheeled vehicles.
The World Forum and its six permanent Working Parties (the expert groups GRB, GRE, GRSG, GRPE, GRRF, GRSP) are very active and have already worked out more than 130 UNECE regulations on active and passive safety of motor vehicles as well as on the environmental protection by limiting the vehicle engine emissions of noise and gaseous pollutants.
GRPE and GRRF are the main expert groups working on innovative engine technologies and energy efficient powertrains.
Under the 6 official Working Parties, 36 informal groups have been established as expert groups with a time-limit mandate to work on specific subjects.
The work of the 6 subsidiary bodies of WP.29 is aimed at: • the improvement of vehicles’ active and passive safety • the reduction of vehicles’ noise level, emissions of pollutants and fuel consumption
9 September 2008
UNECE Transport Division
9 September 2008

3. WP.29 Activities on Fuel Efficiency 1
GRPE Activities on pollution and energy:
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG): 1987
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG): 2000
Electrical Vehicles (EV): 1996
Hybrid/Electric vehicles (HEV): 2004
Fuel Quality (FQ): (2010)
Hydrogen & Fuel Cell vehicles (HFCV) - Environment: (2010)
Environmentally Friendly Vehicles (EFV)
Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedures (WLTP): (2015)
Vehicle manufacturers need a regulatory framework to develop new vehicles and to facilitate their entry onto the markets worldwide without any trade barriers.
The World Forum developed new Regulations, under to the 1958 Agreement, for the use of alternative energy sources such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG by R.67 in 1987), compressed natural gas (CNG by R.110 in 2000) and specific LPG and CNG retrofit systems (by R.115 in 2003).
WP.29 adopted a number of amendments to the above mentioned UNECE Regulations to approve electric (by R.100 in 1996) and/or hybrid electric vehicles (2004) and to allow the use of biofuels (2008).
WP.29 also adopted a number of UNECE Regulations to limit the emissions of pollutants (CO, HC, NOx and particulates), e.g. from motorcycles engines (R.40) as well as or for 4 wheeled vehicles (EURO levels for trucks in R.49 or for passenger cars in R.83). Since 1970’s, a substantial abatements of 95-97% in emission limits (20 times lower than those established 30 years ago). Regarding particulate emissions, the levels are now 10 times lower than those in These were large step forward to cleaner vehicle engines and WP.29 goes forward.
The World Forum demonstrated in 2007 that there is a close link between the market fuel quality and the emissions of pollutants from motor vehicles. It recognized that further reduction of emissions through more stringent emission regulations requires more advanced emission control technologies, which drives the crucial need for appropriate fuel to be available to consumers. At this aim, the World Forum set up an informal group to develop (by 2010) recommendations on market fuel quality to enable that vehicles, which were tested in conformity with the UN regulations and using specific reference fuels for the tests, use in their daily service fuels with specific characteristics relating to the vehicle emission levels and technology type of the engine.
As you know, CO2 is not a pollutant but a Green-House Gas and, therefore, has to taken into consideration in the discussion of the abatement of GHG emissions. WP.29 adopted a Regulation (by R.101 in 1997) for the determination of the energy consumption or CO2 emissions of vehicle engines (however, the provisions only describe measurement procedure, CO2 limit values have not yet been inserted).
The discussion on other innovative technologies such as hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles is still in progress in WP.29, taking into account safety provisions for the specific components, their installation on vehicles as well as the crashworthiness. A first draft on HFCV is expected to be finalized for 2010, by the GRPE/GRSP informal groups.
As an outcome of the 3rd Conference on Environmentally Friendly Vehicles in Dresden, the World Forum set up an informal group on EFV to provide close cooperation between EFV conferences and WP.29. The informal group held its first meeting in June 2008 and experts agreed on the need to consider an integrated approach on the basis of a Well-To-Wheel (WTW) analysis, i.e. the production of fuel (Well-To-Tank: WTT), as well as its use in the vehicle (Tank-To-Wheel: TTW), in order to take into account the emissions of gaseous pollutants as well as CO2, and the whole lifecycle of the vehicle (including the energy consumption during its construction and the final disposal).
The World Forum also established in March 2008 an informal group to develop a worldwide harmonized emission test cycle for light vehicles (WLTP), which held its first meeting also in June Following the urgency expressed by the Transport Ministers in Leipzig, the experts agreed to finalize, if possible, the road map for the development of such a gtr by 2009 instead of The group is expected to finalize the draft gtr on WLTP by 2015, including the measurement procedure for CO2 emissions.
GRPE is not only developing emission regulations for road vehicles, but also for Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM), i.e. for small and even large engines fitted to all kind of machinery, such as lawn mower, but also railway locomotives and inland navigation vessels.
9 September 2008
UNECE Transport Division
9 September 2008

4. WP.29 Activities on Fuel Efficiency 2
GRRF Activities on brakes and running gear:
Tyre Rolling Resistance
Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS): (2010)
GRE Activities on lighting and light-signalling:
Dedicated Daytime Running Lamps (DRL)
LED headlamps: 2008
Operating voltage: 2010
WP.29 informal group on:
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)
With regard to fuel efficiency, tyre experts consider in the GRRF Working Party a proposal to monitor the rolling resistance of tyres in order to insert, in near future, new provisions for tyre with a low rolling resistance (RR).
For the same purpose, GRRF set up an informal group to develop (by 2010) new provisions for Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) to ensure correct inflation of tyres on the vehicle. Such systems will not only improve the vehicle safety but also the fuel efficiency (consuming less fuel).
The lighting and light-signalling experts already developed in GRE the dedicated Daytime Running Lamps (DRL) and continues to consider the installation of LED not only for light signalling purposes, but also for the use in headlamps. GRE also set up an informal group to develop by 2010 new provisions for a higher operating voltage systems in vehicles. Theses technologies result in a reduced energy consumption.
ITS technology is another key actor of a more sustainable mobility. Intelligent Transport Systems interact between vehicles and road infrastructures. For this purpose, the World Forum set up an informal group to develop harmonized provisions for such intelligent vehicle systems. The goal is to identify and manage the traffic flow in order to reduce or even avoid traffic congestion on roads. This will also have an important impact on further environmental protection.
The expert groups will also consider the introduction of other innovative technologies, such a intelligent engine management systems (e.g. stop and go function), the eco-driving function or gear-shift indicator, etc.
Other important measures, not directly linked to the WP.29 activities, to improve the energy efficiency are:
- the development of international sustainability criteria for bio-fuels (expected for 2009 by EPFL),
- the long-term sustainable production of electricity, i.e. production should be based on other energy sources than fossil fuels (thus to contribute to the huge effort made by automotive industry to switch their production to electric vehicles).
All governments are urged to address the following actions to reduce transport CO2 emissions:
- consumer information such as eco-driving campaigns and driver training,
- fiscal measures for a quicker introduction of Environmentally Friendly Vehicles (EFVs),
- new infrastructures equipped with intelligent traffic management systems to avoid traffic congestion,
We encourage governments to develop such measures and to implement them on a national or regional basis.
9 September 2008
UNECE Transport Division
9 September 2008

5. UNECE Project on Global Warming and Transport
Objective:
To develop an information and analysis tool based on a uniform methodology for the evaluation of CO2 emissions in the transport sector in order to enable all UN countries to optimize the use of energy sources in the transport sector, taking into consideration: road vehicle fleets, types of propulsion systems, transport infrastructure, Intelligent Transport Systems, sustainable energy sources, intermodal transport on railways and inland waterways.
Expected Achievement:
A powerful analysis tool to develop future transport strategies and to support policy decisions by the countries to receive feedback on the impact of their policy scenarios on the economy.
The UNECE Transport Division initiated a new project to study the impact of road transport on global warming and called for funds to build up this project together with all Regional Commissions, as global warming is a global problem and needs a global solution.
The object of the project is to develop an information and analysis tool based on a uniform methodology for the evaluation of the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the transport sector (except international aviation and maritime transport), taking into account climate-relevant indicators and new transportation trends. All regions will address the full scale of the project.
The methodology for evaluating CO2 emissions would serve as a tool that could be used by all UN Member States to analyze a wide range of questions linked to CO2 emissions and to optimize the use of energy sources in the transport sector, taking into consideration not only the permanent increase of the road vehicle fleets (including the different types of propulsion systems), the future extensions of the transport infrastructure (including Intelligent Transport Systems) and the availability of sustainable energy sources, but also the transport on railways and inland waterways, including intermodal transport. Thus, it would also be a powerful and transparent analysis tool to develop future transport strategies and to support policy decisions by the Member States (taking into account legal and economic aspects such as the introduction of tax incentives for environmentally friendly vehicles or for the use intermodal transport and logistics as well as social behaviours e.g. consumer behaviour after information campaigns) in order to receive feedback on the impact of their different policy scenarios on the economy.
In this respect, the present project proposes to develop a uniform monitoring and analyzing tool based on that methodology, focusing primarily on the greenhouse gas CO2.
This tool can be used by all governments, regional commissions or other interested stakeholders to determine, for their present or future transport modes and infrastructure, the best possible composition of the different energy sources available. This project aims at setting up such a tool in order to assist policy makers in their efforts to develop and optimize appropriate national or regional strategies for the reduction of their national or regional CO2 emissions, including shifts between different modes of transport, and to achieve their goals in the measurable abatement of CO2 emissions with the help of a monitoring tool. The tool should be structured to easily permit an enlargement to other greenhouse gases (GHG) or gaseous pollutants.
In this respect, it follows the request by the Transport Ministers at the International Transport Forum on global warming and transport in Leipzig to focus on transport policy measures that generate the highest returns in terms of CO2 emissions and improvements to national data quality.
It is intended to make the tool publicly accessible and free of charge via the UNECE website.
In order to find a global solution, we have to act locally and we would be happy to have also the full support of WP.5 for this project.
Thanks a lot for your attention.
9 September 2008
UNECE Transport Division
9 September 2008