EU Sustainable Energy Week: conference on urban mobility

Next week is the annual European Union Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW). This event is part of the Sustainable Energy Europe campaign and is contrived by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, the European Institutions and major stakeholders concerned with sustainable energy together. We've singled out one of the activities, the conference on urban mobility, and will be reporting back on it.

Already cities throughout Europe are buzzing with side events and this will continue in the weeks following EUSEW.

Message
The urban mobility conference held on Wednesday aims at the transport sector. Amongst the topics on the programme of are: green zones, public procurement of clean mobility, European mobility research, and the added value of EU action.

The multi-sectoral nature of sustainable energy development is the common theme around which the key topics of the week revolve. From this nature stems the need for everyone to work together towards a common goal, which is the message the EUSEW wants to get across.

But although many sectors will be well catered for during the week, the overall programme is neatly divided by sector. So let's hope there will be enough mingling and exchanging of ideas.

Highlight: Green zones – promises and challenges

Caroline Ofoegbu, Deputy Director General of the FIA European Bureau, will be talking about green zones, followed by Kerstin Meyer, Policy Officer for the Brussels-based European Federation for Transport & Energy (T&E). The two will tackle various aspects of green zones from their perspectives and are willing to engage in discussion and answer questions from the public.

Preview
Ms Meyer gives us a preview of her presentation.

Will you be focusing on one particular green zone as a good or bad example?
“The definition of 'green zone' the organisation of this conference adheres to doesn't confine itself to urban parks or to congestion charging zones. A green zone can combine all sorts of measures, amongst which are speed limits, pedestrianisation, restricted access areas, and urban charging. That makes it impossible to compare and label a green zone 'successful' or 'unsuccessful',” says Ms Meyer.

“However, I will restrict my presentation to a highly efficient variant: the 'environmental zone', instated to improve air quality locally. In discussing the impact of environmental zones I will be focusing on a few cities in particular: Stockholm, one of the early adopters, and Berlin and London as large-scale examples.”

When asked after the promises and challenges referred to in the title, Ms Meyer says: “I will be mentioning additional measures that could be taken at a European level. European standards for tyre noise levels, for example, would spare cities the costs of instating measures themselves.”

Road-pricing
In daily life the focus of T&E is not restricted to environmental zones. Its director Jos Dings already conveyed here on MindsinMotion.net that he is in favour of the Swiss system of paying for mobility. More than just green zones or tolled motorways, that means road-pricing on every road. Mr Dings stressed the need for a centralised European charging system and greater flexibility for member states when spending revenues from road charges.

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