Lisbon must accelerate sustainable mobility measures to reach 2030 with zero emissions in the transport sector, according to a European study released today by the Zero association, in which about 35 European cities obtained a low rating.
Lisbon, the only Portuguese city evaluated in the study, obtained an overall rating of 49.8% and is in 10th place in the ranking.
Zero is concerned with the assessment of the city of Lisbon, “which denotes a continued focus on the individualization of urban transport” and, like other European cities, is not preparing for sustainable mobility.
The study was done in the scope of the Clean Cities Campaign, a coalition of European organizations of which ZERO is a member, and which intends to intensify the fight against climate change, air pollution, and mobility poverty, with the goal of achieving urban mobility with virtually zero emissions by the end of the decade.
The coalition presented the state of play regarding the existing shared mobility and zero emission solutions in 42 European cities, including Lisbon.
For these results, the study measured the performance of cities on a scale from 0 to 100% on four quantitative indicators that reflect the current state of shared and zero-emission mobility in each of the cities, namely shared bicycles and scooters, shared electric cars, zero-emission buses, and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
The Portuguese capital stands out for its wide range of scooters and shared bicycles, and for its charging infrastructure for electric cars.
“As for the indicators of shared electric cars (which represent the availability of shared electric car rentals out of the total number of these vehicles) and zero emission buses (measured through the relative incorporation of 100% electric buses in the total bus fleet in the city), Lisbon rates very poorly or poorly,” Zero pointed out, showing concern “since mobility in a city like Lisbon must be structured around traditional means of public transportation.”
Zero also pointed out that soft mobility is important in urban transport, but “it is a complement to traditional public transport, not a substitute, and cannot be used to plug holes in public transport or to avoid investment in infrastructure or transport modes.”
Regarding zero emission buses in Lisbon, by the end of the first quarter of 2023, Carris “only had in its fleet a total of 15 electric buses, or 2.3% of the total fleet”, he stressed.
The study “allows us to conclude that not only Lisbon, but all the cities analyzed, need to make significant improvements in their transport system to achieve zero emission mobility by 2030.
The city of Copenhagen in Denmark came first in the overall rankings with a score of 86.5%, and is considered an example in terms of good results and on track for decarbonized mobility in 2030.
Next on the list of good examples are Oslo (81.3%) and Paris (69.5%), cities that were already in the top five in the 2022 ranking.
At the bottom of the overall rankings is the Manchester metropolitan area (8.3%) followed closely by Dublin (8.8%).
“The study shows that, in general, cities need to improve a lot on the indicators evaluated, as 35 cities have a C or worse rating on the A-F class scale,” Zero pointed out.
