EC unveils Transport 2050 roadmap

The European Commission wants all conventionally-fuelled cars off the roads of Europe’s cities by 2050, and a drop of 40% in both aviation and shipping emissions by the same date. […]

The European Commission wants all conventionally-fuelled cars off the roads of Europe’s cities by 2050, and a drop of 40% in both aviation and shipping emissions by the same date.

It also wants to see a 50% shift of medium-distance intercity passenger and freight journeys from road to rail and waterborne transport.

These measures are part of the EC’s Transport 2050 blueprint which was unveiled yesterday.

EC vice-president Siim Kallas said: “Transport 2050 is a roadmap for a competitive transport sector that increases mobility and cuts emissions. We can and we must do both.

“The widely held belief that you need to cut mobility to fight climate change is simply not true. Competitive transport systems are vital for Europe’s ability to compete in the world, for economic growth, job creation and for peoples’ everyday quality of life. Curbing mobility is not an option; neither is business as usual. We can break the transport system’s dependence on oil without sacrificing its efficiency and compromising mobility. It can be win-win.”

Transport 2050 sets out to remove major barriers and bottlenecks in infrastructure and investment, innovation and the internal market.

The aim is to create a Single European Transport Area with more competition and a fully integrated transport network which links the different modes and allows for a shift in transport patterns for passengers and freight.

The roadmap sets several targets for earlier than 2050. These include establishing the framework for a European multimodal transport information, management and payment system, both for passengers and freight, by 2020; a complete modernisation of Europe’s air traffic control system by the same date; and halving the use of ‘conventionally fuelled’ cars in urban transport by 2030, with their ultimate phase from cities by 2050.

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