Faster transport decarbonisation through international expertise
Future projections for Denmark indicate only a small decline in transport emissions towards 2030. Considering quickly shrinking emission budgets to fulfill overall climate goals there is a still more urgent need to speed up decarbonization of the transport sector.
A major obstacle to this appears to be failures in the existing governance frameworks for transport policy. General examples of this are a widespread fragmentation of transport decision making between local, regional and national levels, failures to adopt effective climate policy measures, and a disconnect between climate policy ambitions and the continued pursuit of road network expansion with subsequent growth in conventional automobility.
In order to understand better how to address these issues, CONCITO’s Future Mobility Program is in September 2022 initiating a 6-month collaboration with Prof. Greg Marsden, in order to jointly review current institutional frameworks for transport decarbonization in Denmark, compare these with international theory and practice, and provide recommendations for improving governance frameworks, to help obtain a better alignment between national and local decision-making on transport decarbonization, zero-emission mobility and infrastructure development in Denmark, and potentially elsewhere.
Greg Marsden is a Professor of Transport Governance at Leeds University since 2012. His areas of expertise include transport decision-making; public policy; climate change; energy; smart mobility; and public management. Prof. Marsden has published extensively on a number of key topics pertinent to the governance of transport decarbonization, and CONCITO program objectives.
Prof. Marsden is currently serving as Network Director of Decarbon8 a major UK initiative seeking to bring together business, government and academia to create an innovation ecosystem and test bed environment, which allows to trial and accelerate the adoption of low carbon transport solutions.
Prof. Marsden’s current research areas include ‘Place-Based Decarbonisation’ (PBD), a strategy to build transport decarbonization strategies on local specific spatial and transport system characteristics, rather than assuming ‘one size fits all’. The place-based approach is especially relevant for CONCITO’s engagement with Danish municipalities, through the project ‘DK2020 – Climate Action Plans for all of Denmark’. In this project CONCITO is the designated knowledge partner for nearly all Danish municipalities in their voluntary commitment to adopt Climate Action Plans including carbon neutrality goals. Transport stands as one of the most challenging sectors for local municipalities to decarbonize. While a few larger cities have proposed bold measures, all municipalities are confronted with significant gaps in experience, leverage and capacity when it comes to adopting and implementing strong and overall effective green mobility measures.
As part of the collaboration, CONCITO will set up meetings with relevant stakeholders in Denmark, host a talk in November 2022 and a seminar with broader participation in early 2023. The findings of the work will be published in a joint report following the seminar.
