{"id":14592,"date":"2023-09-21T15:00:31","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/?p=14592"},"modified":"2023-09-22T09:20:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T07:20:53","slug":"european-cities-governing-the-transition-to-sustainable-and-decarbonised-mobility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/european-cities-governing-the-transition-to-sustainable-and-decarbonised-mobility\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"European Cities: Governing the Transition to Sustainable and Decarbonised Mobility"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Charlotte Halpern<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The European Union (EU) has committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, requiring a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. This has major implications for European cities and their ability to initiate and manage the transition. As part of the recently concluded European CIVITAS SUMP-PLUS<\/a> project, Charlotte Halpern, a researcher at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po, has focused on studying this important issue.<\/p>\n

A European Framework in Need of Clarification<\/h4>\n

The EU\u2019s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement, requires reducing transportation sector emissions by 90%. This is a huge challenge, especially for cities, which account for nearly a quarter of transportation sector emissions. Many European cities have gone to considerable lengths to develop sustainable mobility alternatives. Recognising cities\u2019 major role in the transition, the EU has supported their momentum with funding and a flagship tool, the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, which was introduced in 2013 and adopted by over a thousand cities.<\/p>\n

While the promise of carbon-neutral, sustainable and liveable urban mobility has been gaining ground in political discourse, its deployment faces many constraints. In addition to the difficulty of changing behaviours and the need to adapt to the upheavals wrought by the emergence of the platform economy, many obstacles related to governance exist in all member states. It is complicated to integrate conflicting interests in defining collective goals while also strengthening the political capacities of urban public authorities to respond to numerous public and private actors, institutional patchworks, and resistance from impacted groups. Introduced more than ten years ago, tools such as the sustainable urban mobility plan are often outdated and must be reviewed in light of carbon neutrality objectives. For example, considering the multi-sector nature of mobility demand from economic sectors such as education, health, tourism and logistics offers additional opportunities to reduce emissions outside the transportation sector. Meanwhile, small and medium-sized cities are often overlooked in public policy priorities.<\/p>\n

To accelerate the transition to sustainable and decarbonised urban mobility, the EU has adopted a new Urban Mobility Framework\u00a0<\/a>and has started overhauling mobility plans. It also initiated a \u2018Cities Mission\u2019 (Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission<\/a>) to support around a hundred cities seeking to lead the development of breakthrough solutions.<\/p>\n

A Research and Innovation Action Project<\/h4>\n

Findings from theThe CIVITAS SUMP-PLUS project presented here aims to contribute to the EU-level debate by identifying levers likely to accelerate the design and implementation of sustainable urban transition trajectories. Coordinated by the city of Antwerp, it brought together 15 partners from nine European countries between 2019 and 2023: six cities and\/or transportation authorities, four consultancies, two associations of local authorities and three universities. At the Center for European Studies and Comparative Policy (CEE), I set up a team tasked with understanding the governance issues and public policy processes in each city and identifying the cities\u2019 political capacities (1)<\/sup><\/a>CIVITAS SUMP-PLUS Newsletter (July 2022), devoted to the Governance and capacity building<\/a> component..<\/span><\/span>