Climate-friendly mobility in cities. Planning for carbon reduction in the long term in four European cities

Abstract

Many cities have ambitious climate targets, like becoming climate-neutral by 2050, 2040 or 2030, but are uncertain about how mobility and land use should change in order to reduce GHG emissions to levels consistent with the cities’ aims. Finding answers on this, and also on the question of how to strike an effective balance between desired fundamental transformation and realistic expectations, was at the heart of the Interreg Europe project 2050 CliMobCity (2050 Climate-friendly Mobility in Cities). The project partners were four medium-sized but otherwise quite different cities (Bydgoszcz, Plymouth, Thessaloniki and Leipzig), along with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and TU Delft. Each partner city conducted a so-called demonstration study, which required defining ambitious packages of measures (mobility, land use, electrification) and forecasting changes in mobility by macroscopic transport modelling. PIK then analysed GHG emissions using its carbon model. This paper extends the demonstration studies into a case-study approach. This is preceded by an exercise in consistently structuring types of GHG and mobility performances and corresponding measures. The case-study approach is supplemented by a review of the literature on shared and micromobility. A conclusion drawn from the case study is that none of the partner cities is in fact sufficiently reducing GHG emissions. Even if electricity production was completely green, the remaining gap between GHG reduction aims and analysed GHG delivery lies between 30–81 %, dependent on the scenario and city. Shared and micromobility seem not to lead to strongly deviating conclusions. We discuss policies to close the gap. One major option discussed is tackling GHG emissions from urban freight, in forms such as organising public-private cooperation designed to accelerate the electrification of freight vehicles.