Energy Efficiency of Passenger Transport in Poznan Agglomeration in the Face of Peak Oil - Technology Management for Sustainable Production and Logistics - page 157

Acquiring over 500 million tonnes of oil, the price of which fluctuated around
$100 per barrel in 2013 requires an expenditure of $400 billion. Also some politi-
cal risk needs to be taken into consideration. Every major political, military event
or a terrorist incident in any place in the world or especially in an oil-extracting
country cause the prices of oil to rise. One does not have to think back to the
1970s, the times of great oil crisis to understand the impact of such events. The
successes of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham in June 2013 brought about
a 10 % increase in oil prices within just a few days. At the news of downing a
Malaysian Boeing plane in July 2014 over Ukraine, the prices of oil rose by about
5 %. Today, the price is back to its earlier state, but these events prove how sensi-
tive the oil market is. On the other hand, sometimes one is forced to acquire oil in
countries alien to democracy or make rotten compromises. As many examples in
the history show, oil, unlike many other resources, becomes a tool of autocratic
rule in the hands of despots and juntas. Transporting oil by sea and by land is sub-
ject to terrorist attacks and piracy (French and Chambers 2010 ).
Burning oil by the transport industry is a reason for a whole range of unfa-
vourable phenomena. Economists call these the external costs, which in transport
include pollution, emission of carcinogenic solid particles, aromatic hydrocarbons
and many other costs such as climate change, as burning oil means releasing enor-
mous amounts of CO 2 and smaller but more harmful amounts of nitrous oxide
(N 2 O) and methane (CH 4 ) as well as noise, vibration and costs of accidents that
are not covered by insurance, costs of congestion and others. It is estimated that
combined external costs of transportation within the EU, Norway and Switzerland
reached € 500 billion in 2008 which accounts for 4 % of GDP of those coun-
tries (Delft 2011 ). According to a vast majority of experts, going along this path
of development, which stands in contradiction to the assumptions of sustainable
development (extremely resource-intensive and emitting a lot of greenhouse gases)
will bring about extreme damage to the global ecosystem and in economy that is
difficult to imagine and assess.
In the White Paper of transport of 2011, it was assumed that by 2050 a unified
transportation system will have been developed. It will be competitive, it will
support economic growth but will also be resource-efficient, and the emission of
greenhouse gases will decrease by 60 % in comparison with 1990. Ten particular
goals are supposed to be achieved for this to happen most important of which are
as follows (COM 2011 ):
• total elimination of “conventionally-fuelled” cars from cities until 2050 (reduction
by 50 % until 2030),
• introduction of low-carbon sustainable fuels in aviation (at least 40 % by 2050)
and reduction of CO 2 in transport by sea by a minimum of 40 %,
• more reliance on rail transport for long distance cargo shipment,
• development and expansion of high-speed rail,
• reducing the number of road transport fatalities close to zero,
• inal implementation of the rule “user/polluter pays”, i.e. reduction external
costs drastically.