Cities hold the key to leading Europe towards healthy and climate-friendly mobility. Three quarters of Europeans live in urban areas, while mobility in cities is responsible for 23% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions from transport. The transport sector is also the only sector that has seen its emissions rise since 1990.

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The Clean Cities Campaign is a European coalition of organisations hosted by Transport & Environment. Its recent report examined how cities are performing on their journey towards sustainable urban mobility, drawing on research conducted on 36 major European cities between May and December 2021. The report provides robust and comparable data that allows cities and residents to assess where their cities stand on reaching zero-emission mobility by 2030, where they should be going and which are the primary areas for improvement.

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Five categories with a total of 11 indicators were selected based on this vision, ranging from urban space, road safety and public transport to electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as policies such as low and zero emission zones and others that aim to improve air quality. Scores were based on a range of elements, including: the amount of separate infrastructure designated for pedestrians and cyclists; the ratio of fatalities per 100,000 residents; monthly public transport costs, as a percentage share of the average household income; public transport stops per km; current and planned policies; and average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter.

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Topping the leader board was the Norwegian capital Oslo, with an overall score of 71.5, followed by Amsterdam in the Netherlands with 65.5. Both cities scored very well on policies, as did London, Paris and Stockholm. Meanwhile Paris and Lisbon lead on the affordability and accessibility of public transport, as well as access to public and semi-public electric vehicle charging stations.

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Despite these achievements, the report notes that all of the cities analysed needed to make significant improvements in several areas to have a chance of achieving zero-emission mobility by 2030. The report also confirmed that better quality data, that are collected in a consistent way, are urgently needed to conduct effective policies.

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Source: Eltis