The quality of the environment is a continuing concern of the public in Europe and has been the driving force for much research, development and expenditure by the European Vehicle and Oil Industries.
Legislation that has already been implemented and planned provides substantial improvements in air quality. Further improvements however are harder to achieve. Consequently, it has been accepted that a variety of measures, including vehicle/fuel changes need to be investigated together to make further air quality improvements.
This paper describes the principles and organisational structure of a co-operative programme carried out by the European automobile industry (represented by ACEA), and the European oil industry (represented by EUROPIA). This programme, building on US AQIRP, is an important input into the process for developing environmental Legislation for the European Union (the European Auto/Oil process).
It represents a new way of working that permits the costs and the effectiveness of different vehicle/fuel scenarios to be assessed and compared to other measures for improving air quality.