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37th Breakfast at Sustainability’s: Enhancing SUMPs through transition pathways and implementation strategies


5 May 2022


37th Breakfast at Sustainability’s: Enhancing SUMPs through transition pathways and implementation strategies


“Urgent, urgent, urgent,” was the welcome message delivered by Marijke De Roeck, SUMP-PLUS Project Coordinator from the City of Antwerp, at last week’s online mobility edition of the ‘Breakfast at Sustainability’s’ event series, hosted by ICLEI Europe. Marijke was referring to the immediate need to decarbonise the mobility sector across Europe, while creating quality of life for all, within the next 20-30 years. Turning this goal into reality requires not only that cities develop Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs), but that they also implement them. She explained:

“A plan gets created and then usually sits on a shelf. The key question is how to start the doing - the time is now!"

Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General for Mobility and Transport, EC, also re-emphasised the urgency from the European-level perspective, reminding us that we need to reduce emissions in transport by 90% in order to reach our climate goals. He highlighted the role of cities in this challenge and the importance of exchanging with citizens – and other cities.

With this in mind, the speakers from the SUMP-PLUS project presented some of the processes and tools that the project is creating to help bridge the implementation gap and enable more cities to play their role in decarbonising their mobility sectors. The topics covered the background of changing mobility policy perspectives; governance and engagement; multi-sector collaboration and capacity building in municipalities for robust implementation strategies; and the need to integrate shorter-term implementation strategies within longer-term transitions pathways. The presenters then highlighted the six city labs within the project, with a focus on two very different cities - Platanias, Greece and Greater Manchester, UK - providing detailed insights into their individual mobility challenges and solutions.

 

Learn more about the presenters in the agenda.

For those who missed the sessions but are interested in the detailed debates, you can access the recording of the session here.

 


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