Cities hold the key to leading Europe towards healthy and climate-friendly mobility. Mobility in cities is also responsible for 23% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions from transport – the only sector that has seen its emissions rise since 1990.
Clean Cities Campaign, a European coalition of more than 60 organisations campaigning for zero-emission urban mobility by 2030 have developed a report which compares rating and ranking progress of European cities. It covers 36 major cities and aims to provide a robust and transparent benchmark of their performance and encourages them to improve in areas.
Oslo came out on top in the report, based on measures ranging from more space for walking and cycling to road safety and affordability of public transport, with a score of 71.5%. It was followed by Amsterdam with 65.5% and Helsinki with 64.2%. A score of less than 100% indicates that too little is being done to achieve zero emission mobility by 2030.
When it comes to affordability, its report found that London came out bottom of the table, in 36th place, with Manchester only just above it (35th) followed by Birmingham (34th) – on average residents in these cities are being asked to pay 8-10% of their household budget on monthly travel costs.
If the continent is to be carbon neutral by 2050, action needs to be taken now and cities need to lead the way.
The full report can be downloaded HERE.
