Environmental Effects of the Devlopment in Trade and Transportation in Europe

Over the last two decades, in all European countries the transportation sector became the sector that caused the greatest environmental damages, a position formerly held by the "smoke stack industries". True, environmental standard of motor vehicles have been improved through stiffer and stiffer regulations, but this beneficial effect has been more than offset through a change in the "modal split" – a move from transportation by ship and by rail to road transport services. These developments have been stimulated by price and quality differences between transport modes, through the upward trend in foreign trade, changes in the organisation of production, the location of enterprises, as well as the kind of instruments used in environmental policy.