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Transportudvalget 2022-23 (2. samling)
TRU Alm.del Bilag 151
Offentligt

ALIGNING TRANSPORT

DECARBONISATION

ACROSS POLICY LEVELS

- a comparative review of countries

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ALIGNING TRANSPORT

DECARBONISATION

ACROSS POLICY LEVELS

– a comparative review of countries

March 31, 2023

Preface

This report is the result of the project

The roles and interplays of national,

regional, and local authorities in

transport decarbonisation.

The

project is a collaboration between

the Mobility Program at CONCITO,

Denmark’s green think tank, and

Greg Marsden, Professor of Transport

Governance at the University of

Leeds.

The report undertakes a review of

national frameworks to support

transport decarbonisation at the

regional and local level in three

countries, Great Britain, Sweden, and

Denmark. On this basis, the report

provides as set of recommendations

for better aligning efforts to

decarbonise transport across policy

levels in Denmark. Another aim is to

inform the international debate on

climate governance in transport.

The project has been enabled and

funded via CONCITO’s Pool for

International Experts, during the

period September 2022 to February

2023.

External actors from Denmark,

United Kingdom, and Sweden have

contributed valuable information to

the drafting of the report, including

contributions to seminars held in

November 2022 and February 2023.

CONCITO and the authors are solely

responsible for all content and

recommendations.

Authors:

Professor Greg Marsden

PhD. Meng, FCIHT, FHEA

Greg is Professor of Transport Governance at the Institute for

Transport Studies at the University of Leeds. He has researched issues

surrounding the design and implementation of new policies for over

20 years. He is an expert in climate and energy policy in the transport

sector. He is the Principal Investigator on the DecarboN8 network

where he is responsible for integrating a new place based approach to

decarbonising transport.

Henrik Gudmundsson

PhD., MSc. Environmental Planning

Henrik is Senior Consultant in the Mobility program of CONCITO

– Denmark’s Green Think Tank. He has a background as a Senior

Researcher of sustainable transport policy analysis at the Technical

University of Denmark and the National Environmental Research

Institute. He is author and co-author of several articles, reports, and

books about transport, climate change, and sustainability.

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Table of contents

Preface

Summary

1 Introduction and overview

1.1 The climate challenge to transport

1.2 The role of local action

1.3 Multi-level coordination

1.5 ‘Alignment’ initiatives around the world

1.6 Overiew of the report

2 4 Sweden

4.1 Sweden’s Climate Policy

4.2 Transport Decarbonisation policy

4.3 Horizontal coordination of transport decarbonisation

4.4 Role of regional and local planning authorities

4.5 National frameworks for local transport decarbonisation

4.6 Stadsmiljöavtal

4.7 Case – Lund

4.8 Summary

2 National and Local Action – Key Issues

2.1 Nationally-led approaches

2.2 Locally-led Approaches

2.3 Coordination across scales

5 Denmark

5.1 Denmark’s Climate Policy

5.2 Transport Decarbonisation policy

5.3 Horizontal coordination of transport decarbonisation

5.4 Role of regional and local planning authorities

5.5 National framework for local transport decarbonisation

5.6 Case - Odense Mobility Plan

5.7 Summary

3 Great Britain

3.1 National Climate Policy

3.2 Transport Decarbonisation Strategy

3.3 Working Across Ministries

3.4 From National to Local Policy

3.5 Cases

3.6 Summary

6 Discussion

7 Recommendations

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Summary

Around the world regional and

local authorities have committed

themselves to fulfil ambitious climate

goals. One of the most challenging

sectors is transport. It has become

clear that delivering significant CO

mitigation in the area of transport

is a new and unfamiliar task for

many municipalities. At the same

time national governments are also

struggling to adopt coherent and

achievable strategies.

Different levels of government have

responsibilities for different parcels

of the spatial domain, different

sections of the transport system, and

different levers in the policy toolbox.

Aligning transport planning and policy

measures across levels of government

therefore has the potential to achieve

effective

decarbonisation.

Alignment across policy areas and

levels has always been desirable

but challenging to achieve. For

decarbonisation, this requires central

governments to provide adequate

frameworks. Local and regional

authorities are reaching out for

leverage, support, and coordination.

This report is about national

frameworks to support transport

decarbonisation at the regional and

local level. The report looks in detail

at how the levels are being aligned

in three countries, Great Britain,

Sweden, and Denmark.

The following key questions are

addressed,

•

To what extent and how is

local transport decarbonisation

supported

centrally

coordinated initiatives?

•

What are strengths and

weaknesses

different

frameworks and measures

applied in practice?

•

With a view to Denmark,

how could the alignment and

coordination across levels be

enhanced?

Based on the comparative study, the

following recommendations for the

Danish context are presented:

Develop a clear national strategy

for transport decarbonisation

pointing

towards

climate

neutrality, to help reduce

uncertainties experienced by

citizens, business, and local

authorities.

Explicitly

recognize

the

potential and role of municipal

and regional bodies in helping

transport

decarbonisation,

including actions that underpin

and

implement

national

measures, as well as measures

that employ the unique levers

enabled by local conditions,

resources, mandates, and

democratic engagement.

Develop a national support

program

for

Sustainable

Urban Mobility Planning with

elements

customized

national guidance, platforms,

and fora of exchange, connected

to informal initiatives like

European NetZeroCities and the

national DK-2020 project.

Explore the prospects of

consolidating national funding

streams

from

separate

short-term pots of money

and

individual

transport

infrastructure

investments

into

longer-term

unified

support packages with a

view to delivering low carbon

sustainable urban mobility

plans and practices.

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1 Introduction and overview

1.1 The climate challenge to

transport

The

climate

crisis

represents

unprecedented

challenges

for

societies worldwide. According to the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change

(IPCC),

human-induced

climate change is already affecting

many weather and climate extremes

in every region across the globe

. UN

Secretary-General António Guterres

has more recently warned that

mankind is currently on the road to

‘collective suicide’.

Transport is a critical sector in this

regard. The IPCC makes clear that

meeting climate mitigation goals

would require transformative changes

also across the transport sector.

Yet,

experience has shown that transport

emissions are hard and slow to

mitigate.

Transport represents a large

and growing share of Greenhouse

Gas emissions, now 17% of GHG’s

globally

, and around 30% in affluent

countries like Denmark, Sweden,

and the United Kingdom. And at the

local level, transport in some cases

represents a far larger proportion,

with 40, 50 or even 60 % in some

Danish municipalities.

Attention to transport decarbonisation

therefore

not

only

engages

international bodies and national

governments, but

increasingly also

regional and local authorities,

who

have declared climate emergencies

or committed themselves to fulfil

ambitious climate goals. An example

is again Denmark, where nearly

all municipalities in the country

have volunteered to deliver Paris

Agreement compatible action plans in

the so-called

DK2020 project.

In most

of these plans,

transport/mobility is

targeted as a key intervention area.

public procurement and ownership,

to engaging with citizens and local

businesses in exploring changes to

urban design, travel behaviour, and

mobility patterns. In short, climate

committed local governments are

emerging as dedicated change agents

for transport decarbonisation.

The need for bottom-up action

to decarbonise transport is also

recognized by a range of international

bodies. For example, according to the

European Urban Mobility Framework

launched in 2021, the deployment

of zero-emission vehicles will only

deliver a part of the solutions.

The

European Commission as well as other

international bodies promote the

need for Sustainable Urban Mobility

Plans with a combination of measures

1.2 The role of local action

In most of the local plans,

transport/

mobility is targeted as a key

intervention area.

Municipalities have

begun exploring options to incorporate

carbon mitigation with their existing

transport strategies and considering

their dual roles to transform within

their own organisation, and to act as

a catalyst for transformation in the

local society (Amundsen et al. 2018).

A broad range of potential leavers are

available in this regard, from urban

planning, to traffic regulation, to

IPCC (2021). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change.

UN Sec. Gen. Guterres, July 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/18/humanity-faces-collective-suicide-over-climate-crisis-warns-un-chief.

3 Jaramillo, P. et al. (2022). Transport, In: Climate Change 2022. Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change

Brand, C (2021). ‘Seven reasons why transport is so hard to decarbonise’

https://theconversation.com/seven-reasons-global-transport-is-so-hard-to-decarbonise-170908

Estimate for 2022;

www.Statista.com

accessed, Jan. 29, 2023.

6 Amundsen, H. Hovelrud, GK; Aall, C; Karlsson, M; Westskog, H (2018). Local governments as drivers for societal transformation: towards the 1.5 C ambition. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

2018, 31, pp. 23–29.

7 European Commission (2021). The New Urban Mobility Framework. COM(2021) 811 final, Brussels, 14.12.2021

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AVOID

Adopt integrated land-use planning

to avoid transport need by prioritizing

moving people and improving

transport access over private cars.

SHIFT

Make investments in, establish pricing

for and shift towards low-carbon modes

of transport (trains, public transport,

cycling).

IMPROVE

Complete transformation to zero-emissions

vehicle technologies for cars, vans, buses and

trucks, and for ships and planes in combination

with zero-emissions fuels.

On the positive side it seems obvious

that transport decarbonisation can be

facilitated and expedited

if transport

strategies are aligned with climate

policies, and frameworks, strategies,

and actions are coordinated across

agencies and levels of government.

Conversely, if governments

do not

align efforts, several undesirable

outcomes could be envisaged. One

may risk for example, that effective

but demanding actions are overlooked

or shied away from; that ineffective

or unnecessarily costly measures

are adopted; that ‘green’ and ‘black’

transport projects based in different

constituencies counteract each other;

or that burdens of reduction is shifted

across levels or sectors rather than

relieved.

For this reason, observers of transport

and climate policy highlight the need

for coordinating frameworks and

actions,

as put by Tønnesen et

al. (2022): “Given

the complexity of

transport and the difficulty of reducing

emissions, an integrative-governance

Table 1. The Avoid-Shift-Improve framework for transport carbon mitigation (UNEP (2022). Emissions Gap Report 2022, Nairobi).

to avoid, shift, and improve transport,

to deliver climate goals (EIB/JASPERs

2022; UNEP 2022).

Moreover, the

International

Transport

Forum

observes how differences in culture,

local

practices,

infrastructure,

incomes, housing situation and

mobility needs create specific

conditions that require corresponding

approaches to encourage sustainable

transport

behaviour.

Top-down

measures may not always reflect such

differences and may therefore lead

to unintended results or opposition

to climate action (ITF 2022).

In other

words, locally grounded action by

regional and local authorities may be

more than just an appendix to uniform

national interventions.

This enquiry generally starts from

the propositions

that

first,

effective

actions to decarbonise transport

are urgently needed,

second,

local

climate commitments and plans with

a view to transport are already rapidly

emerging in Denmark and elsewhere,

and

third,

the capacity and propensity

of intervention by regional and local

authorities

may

be important to help

expedite the transition. We will unfold

the latter point in Chapter 2.

1.3 Multi-level coordination

The assumption that several levels

of authority have roles to play for

transport

decarbonisation

and

sustainable mobility has been

phrased as the need for

a multi-level

governance approach.

One rationale for this approach

sees transport as a complex sector,

embedded in different societal logics

and geographies. Different levels

of authority have responsibilities

for different parcels of the spatial

domain, different sections of the

transport system, and different levers

in the policy toolbox. Combining

measures and pressures therefore

has the potential to achieve more,

faster. However, when different

levels of authority intervene in the

same complex field, coherence, and

consistency become important.

A multi-level approach to transport

decarbonisation also points to a need

for

coordination and alignment

efforts.

8 EIB/JASPERS et al (2022). Topic Guide: Decarbonisation of urban mobility. Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, Brussels, December 2022.

https://www.eltis.org/sites/default/files/sump_top-

ic_guide_decarbonisation.pdf

ITF (2022).

Submission to the First Global Stocktake,.

International Transport Forum, Paris, 28. February, 2022.

See for example Mladenovic, L; Plevnik, A; Rye, T (2022). Implementing national support programmes for sustainable urban mobility plans in a multilevel governance context. Case Studies on Transport

Policy, Volume 10, Issue 3, September 2022, pp. 1686-1694

Marsden G & Anable J. (2021). Behind the Targets? The Case for Coherence in a Multi-Scalar Approach to Car-bon Action Plans in the Transport Sector. Sustainability. 13(13)

For example: SKR (2022). Samordnad-bebyggelse-och-transportplanering. Lärande eksempel. Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner.

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120%

CO2e-Reducion in 2030 compared with BAU

approach is relevant.”

This kind of

approach can for example materialize

as a National Urban Mobility Policy,

or a National Support Program.

The enquiry of the report

will

therefore address local actions to

decarbonise transport

in the context

of multi-level governance,

with a view

to supporting national frameworks

and mechanisms to help align efforts

across levels of government.1.4

The

DK-2020 experience

The

specific motivation driving the

study

stems from CONCITO’s role as

knowledge partner and secretariat

for the DK-2020 project, where 95

of Denmark’s 98 municipalities have

committed to adopt Climate Actions

Plans that deliver climate neutrality

before 2050.

While transport as noted is a high

priority area in most action plans, it

has become increasingly clear that

delivering significant transport CO

mitigation is a new and unfamiliar

task for most local municipalities.

A recent study of the first 20 completed

DK-2020 Climate Action Plans showed

that while more than 30% of the

actions in the plans are aimed at

transport and mobility, each measure

in the plan typically shows little

mitigation effect (Ea Energianalyse

2022).

Municipalities

are

generally

not

advancing

comprehensive

transformative mobility strategies,

and few are emboldened to adopt

powerful measures to ‘avoid’

transport or constrain car traffic. Thus,

transport appears as the sector where

the comprehensive Climate Action

Plans will deliver

the lowest

mitigation by 2030 (compared with a

BAU projection), namely 23% in 2030

versus 50% reduction for all sectors

combined (see Fig. 1).

Another recent survey of climate

policies across all Danish municipalities

confirms that 77% of responding

authorities highlight transport as a

sector that is ’very’ or ‘extremely’

hard to decarbonise, while transport

is emphasized as the sector where the

100%

98%

80%

60%

47%

40%

30%

23%

20%

21%

50%

Energy

Transport

Industry etc. Farming and

Land

Other

All sectors

Fig. 1 Projected CO2e emission reductions from transport in local Climate Action Plan

scenarios of 20 DK2020 municipalities. Source: EA Energianalyse (2022)

need for cross- municipal collaboration

is the greatest.

All in all, while both the need and

the desire to mitigate transport

emissions are clearly present at the

local level, the capacity and leverage

to accomplish it is currently felt to be

severely constrained.

What has emerged from CONCITO’s

ongoing scrutiny of Climate Action

Plans, dialogue with local actors, and

observations of the general discourse,

is not one particular isolated obstacle

for adequate intervention but rather

a general frustration with lack of

government-mediated

direction,

Tønnesen, A; Sandkjær Hanssen, G; Bruun Hansen, K; Valencia, SC. (2022). Integrative climate leadership in multi-level policy packages for urban mobility - A study of governance systems in two Nordic

urban regions. Transport Policy 128 (2022) 309–317

Lah, O et al. (2020). National Urban Mobility Policies & Investment Programmes – Guidelines. MobiliseYourCity Secretariat, Brussels, December 2020. www.mobiliseyourcity.net

European Commission (2021) The New Urban Mobility Framework. COM(2021) 811 final, Brussels, 14.12.2021

EA Energianalyse (2022). Analysis of the emission reduction contributions of Danish municipalities towards meeting the 70% target by 2030. DK2020, May 2022

17 KL (2022).

Kommunernes Klimabarometer

(in Danish)

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support and resources

for local action

to decarbonise not least transport and

mobility.

These observations have

raised our attention to the context

of national policy and governance in

which local action is embedded.

A key aim of this report

is thus to

describe the existing governing

arrangements for local climate action

in the area of transport and mobility

and look for possible ways to enhance

them, or in other words how to

empower DK-2020 municipalities

and other local authorities to more

effective action though design or

adaptation of multi-level governance

frameworks.

In the following we highlight a few

examples before zooming on the cases

selected for our study.

Norway’s

‘Byvekstavtaler’ (Urban

Growth Agreements, UAG’s) stands

out as a particularly grand example of

a program aligning national transport

policy with local greening-of-transport

action. An UAG is an incentive

arrangement that involves significant

state (and toll-road) funding coupled

with network cooperation between

national, county, and municipal

authorities on transport and land-use

policies for the larger urban regions.

The overall goal of each UAG is to

obtain

zero growth in car traffic,

with

the aim that all growth in passenger

transport is to be absorbed by public

transport, bicycling and walking, which

again is intended to deliver reduced

congestion noise, air pollution, and

CO2 emissions (Tønnesen et al. 2019).

Currently UAG’s exist for the nine

largest urban areas in Norway. The

government allocates very significant

funds for UAG’s through the 12-year

1.5 ‘Alignment’ initiatives

around the world

Denmark is obviously not alone

in its struggles with transport

decarbonisation, and nor are its

local authorities. A quick scan of the

regional and international scene

reveals that similar concerns are

widespread, while ways to deal with

them differ.

18 Based on dialogues with municipal planners and stakeholders during DK2020 workshops, plan

reviews and other interactions, as well as press announcements and submissions from KL (Local

Government Denmark).

19Tønnesen, A; Krogstad, J.R; Christiansen, P; Isaksson, K. (2019). National Goals and Tools to Fulfil

Them: A Study of Opportunities and Pitfalls in Norwegian Metagovernance of Urban Mobility.

Transp. Policy 2019, 81, pp. 35–44

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national transport plans (currently

80 billion NOK, or 7.4 billion € for the

2022-33 period).

Finland

has one of the worlds’

toughest legally binding climate goals

– climate neutrality by 2035. The

Municipal Climate Change Solutions

Programme of the Ministry of the

Environment supports and co-funds

local and regional climate action to

reduce GHG emissions at least in line

with the national target, in a way

that is as cost-effective and as widely

accepted as possible.

Low-carbon transport actions are

included in the program although

they represent relatively few of the

134 actions supported so far. Through

revisions to the Climate Act in 2022

Finnish municipalities have now

become

obliged

to draw up climate

plans going forward, either alone or

together with other municipalities

in their region. The government is

currently preparing planning guidance

for municipalities.

A pool to support

the planning process (2.6 million € per

year) has been provided.

In the

Netherlands

the National

Climate Agreement (2019) has

specified that 30-40 cities would

implement a Zero-Emission Zone

for Freight (ZEZ-F), starting from

2025. The government has adopted

regulation to secure that new delivery

vans and trucks bought after 2025

must be zero-emission if they are to

enter cities with a ZEZ-F.

It has also introduced a phase-

out program for existing fossil-fuel

commercial vans and trucks and tax

incentives for shifting to ZE vehicles.

To directly support the process in

each ZEZ-F city the government

has established a so-called expert

pool. The pool helps cities identify

key challenges for their specific

municipality, create implementation

plans, share learnings on a national

level, and provide tools for the local

decision-making process (Holtslag et

al. 2020)

. As of now, 28 municipalities

have adopted Zero Emission Zones, in

force from 2025, 2026 or 2027.

As previously indicated,

the European

Union

is moving towards strengthening

the framework for sustainable urban

mobility action, also to help deliver its

Climate goal of 55% GHG reduction by

2030. The EU has constrained powers

at the local planning level due to the

principle of subsidiarity and has so

far mostly followed a soft strategy

focussed on research, knowledge

exchange, and general guidance. An

example is the recently published

Topic Guide for Decarbonisation of

Urban Mobility (EIB/JASPERS et al

(2022).

The soft approach now is reinforced

with a proposal to make a Sustainable

Urban

Mobility

Plan

(SUMP)

mandatory for all so-called Urban

Nodes in the European TEN-T transport

network. This will involve some 424

cities above 100.000 inhabitants in

Europe, including 4-6 in Denmark.

Moreover, national governments are

supposed to establish national SUMP

support programs, including ‘possibly’

financial support.

As of February 2023, the details of

the proposal are still in negotiation

between the European Commission

and Member States.In a quite

different context, the

United States

Government

has just adopted their

National Blueprint for Transportation

Decarbonization. It a so-called ‘whole-

of government’ approach, involving

four key agencies, recognizing a need

to combine multiple strategies and

coordinate action to deliver ‘clean,

safe, secure, accessible, affordable,

and equitable solutions’ (DoE et al

2023).

The blueprint combines strategies

increase convenience

(= reduce

avoidable transport through land-use

planning, etc.),

improve efficiency

https://www.vegvesen.no/fag/fokusomrader/nasjonal-transportplan/byvekstavtaler/

https://ym.fi/en/municipal-climate-change-solutions-programme-2018-2023

https://ym.fi/en/-/government-proposal-municipalities-obliged-to-draw-up-climate-plans-in-future

Holtslag et al. (2020).

How-to Guide: Zero-Emission Zones. Don’t Wait to Start with Freight!

Transport Decarbonisation Alliance, C40 Cities and POLIS. December 2020

https://www.opwegnaarzes.nl/over-zes/interactieve-kaart

European Commission (2021). Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network.

COM(2021) 812 final, Strasbourg, 14.12.2021

Department of Energy et al (2023).

THE U.S. NATIONAL BLUEPRINT FOR TRANSPORTATION DECARBONIZATION.

A Joint Strategy to Transform Transportation. DOE/EE-2674, Washington DC, January 2023

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shift transport to the most carbon

efficient solutions), and

transitions

to clean options

(= deployment of

zero-emission vehicles and fuels). The

Blueprint stands on top of extensive

budget commitments in the recent

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL)

and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The

Blueprint stipulates significant roles for

state, regional and local authorities in

transport decarbonisation and invites

multi-level collaboration in several

areas although it does not detail the

mechanisms for multi-level alignment.

These initiatives all represent recent

examples of ways to promote

transport decarbonisation in a multi-

level governance context. While

elements from the examples will

be drawn on later in this report, we

have chosen to review in depth two

other international examples for

comparability and potential inspiration

for the situation in Denmark, namely

Great Britain and Sweden.

Great Britain

is chosen because of the

country’s long tradition for national

transport policies with Local Transport

Plans in England as a key tenet. The

devolution history of the United

Kingdom and the country’s close ties

with other English-speaking nations

represents experience in national-

regional-local governance interaction

and potential policy transfer.

The UK also has an advanced climate

policy framework, which has served

to inspire the Danish Climate Act of

2019, and more recently a specific

national decarbonisation strategy has

been adopted for each key sector,

including transport. Finally, co-author

Professor Greg Marsden has a long

track record in researching multi-level

governance for sustainable transport

in the context of Great Britain.

Sweden

is chosen because it is a

neighbour country to Denmark with

somewhat comparable features in

terms of population size, income level,

culture, politics, welfare system, and

urbanization. In both countries the

transport sector share of national CO

emissions is around 30%. Sweden’s

overall climate policy framework is

also akin to the Danish one, both

drawing on elements of the

U K

model. However, Sweden’s system

for transport policy and planning is

more formalized than the Danish one

and Sweden also has more extensive

frameworks and measures to support

transport decarbonisation actions

at both national, regional, and local

levels.

Notably, none of the three

countries today have legally binding

requirements to do Climate Action

planning at a local scale. Whilst there is

a formal obligation for Local Transport

Plans to be prepared in England since

2000, this has been enforced less

rigorously by central government

in recent years. The similarity in

institutional

arrangements

may

enhance comparison and potential

applicability across contexts, without

necessarily assuming a need for

comprehensive institutional or legal

reforms.

The way the three examples are

reviewed in the report is described in

the overview of the report.

27 The United Kingdom comprises four countries (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). Great Britain refers to the first three. Whilst some

competencies are held at a whole UK level (e.g., emissions standards) others are devolved to each of the national administrations. Northern Ireland is

the smallest of the four countries and has very limited roles for local government in transport so is not included in the review work. There is no devolved

administration for England and so Acts passed specifically for England are made in the UK Parliament.

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1.6 Overiew of the report

The following key questions are

addressed,

•

To what extent and how is

local transport decarbonisation

supported

centrally

coordinated initiatives?

•

What are strengths and

weaknesses

different

frameworks and measures

applied in practice?

•

How could the alignment and

coordination

across

levels

be enhanced, with a view to

Denmark?

Chapter 2 will provide conceptual

framing and typology for the review

of countries and coordinating

frameworks based on relevant

literature. Two items are covered.

First, we review the current discourse

on the rationales for central versus

local decarbonisation action in

transport, consolidating the local level

as a relevant focal point.

Second,

review

different

mechanisms for coordination across

scales, from formal to informal and

enabling frameworks. This forms

a typology to be used in the cross

-cutting discussion of the examples.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 concern Great

Britain, Sweden, and Denmark

respectively.

For each country we start by briefly

outlining the national climate policy

framework and key aspects of

transport decarbonisation strategies.

Then the role of regional and local

government in that context is

discussed. Finally, mechanisms and

frameworks to coordinate and align

national and local/regional action are

described and exemplified with cases,

before each country’s situation is

summarized.

Chapter 6 offers a cross-cutting

discussion of findings while chapter 7

is the conclusion.

The scope of the study is illustrated in

figure 2.

Fig. 2 The report will focus on the coordination of efforts to decarbonise

transport across authorities with the main emphasis on vertical

coordination.

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2 National and Local Action – Key Issues

This Chapter reviews the strengths

and weaknesses of arguments for

nationally and locally-led approaches.

It concludes that actions at both

scales are important as is the interplay

between them as actions can be

mutually reinforcing or in conflict. If

it is accepted that local action matters

then the key question is how best

to manage the interfaces between

policy making across scales and this

section concludes by reflecting on

different approaches to steering this

coordination.

•

Second, some of the instruments

for change such as taxation and

regulation are very often only

available at a national scale or are

dominated by national choices.

Measures such as changing

taxes to encourage better

environmental outcomes impact

on different aspects of welfare

and may lead to perverse or

unintended outcomes without

wider compensatory policies

(Fosgerau and Jensen, 2013).

The compensatory measures

may best be considered from a

whole economy scale and also

applied through national tools;

•

Third, it is not yet agreed how to

fairly allocate responsibility for

some matters to a local scale.

The presence or absence of a

port, airport, power plant or

other industrial cluster in a local

area could be hugely distortive

to the carbon budgets for an

area in sectors over which little

or no local jurisdiction is held

(Wood et al., 2010);

and

•

Fourth, and with particular

importance to transport, whilst

the majority of trips are very

short and local for travelers,

long distance trips and those

by freight vehicles which cross

multiple local boundaries form

a very significant contribution to

carbon from the transport sector

and, therefore, to the scale at

which carbon management is

most effective (Marsden and

Anable, 2021).

These arguments are all evidenced

and have significant merit. However,

it is also well understood that national

policies do not fall evenly across the

population or across places. This

is because of the long histories of

different areas with different levels of

income, industrial make up, transport

systems etc.

For example, uniform national

policies that exempt over 65-year-

olds from fares on public transport

overwhelmingly benefit those who

have good access to public transport,

which is typically the core of larger

urban areas.

Figure 3 shows the relative levels of use

of public transport for accessing work

in Norfolk in England which shows

that only the urban core of the largest

town (Norwich, population 213,000)

has significant bus use for work. This

is a wider proxy for the quality of bus

access and so there are large areas

with little or no viable service.

Typically, it is left to local government

to decide how to provide socially

necessary bus services to provide

access for those without a commercial

service. The national policy must have

a complementary adjustment which

is best provided at a local level where

need is understood.National policy

might also fall unevenly because of the

actions (and inactions) of local areas.

2.1 Nationally-led approaches

There are strong arguments for

nationally-led

approaches

decarbonisation policy. These take

various forms:

•

First, the costs of mitigation

in different sectors vary and,

therefore, a whole of govern-

ment approach can balance out

where action should be taken

earliest (Faehn et al. 2020);

Faehn, T.; Kaushal, K.R.; Storrøsten, H., Yonezawa, H. And Bye, B. (2020). Abating greenhouse gases in the Norweigian non-ETS sector by 50 per cent by 2030: A macroeconomic analysis of

Climate Cure 2030, Statistics Norway

Fosgerau, M. & Jensen, T.C. (2013) A green reform is not always green, Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 30, 210-220

Wood, F.R; Bows, A;. and Anderson, K. (2010). Apportioning aviation CO2 emissions to regional administrations for monitoring and target setting, Transport Policy, 17, pp. 206-215

Marsden, G. & Anable, J. (2021) Behind the Targets? The Case for Coherence in a Multi-Scalar Approach to Carbon Action Plans in the Transport Sector, Sustainability 13(13) 7122

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These are three cities that have low

emission zones in place – so local

enacting of powers permitted to the

cities has driven uptake of EVs and

the associated charge infrastructure.

By contrast, there are large areas

with relative weak infrastructure and

little progress being made. These are

particularly associated with more rural

areas in England and Wales and outside

of the larger cities where the local

authority capacity to deliver change is

also more limited (Fitzpatrick, 2021).

What we see is that national policy

is not being enacted in an even

way. Sometimes local action is an

accelerant of progress (e.g., through

emission zones and parking charge

regimes) and sometimes it is lagging.

Working together across the national-

local policy system will be necessary to

understand who is best placed to effect

change and what adaptations need to

be made to enable it to happen at the

required pace.

governments across the globe have

declared a climate emergency.

There

is clearly a strong desire from local

governments and their populations

for action to be taken and for local

areas to play their part. Some of the

reasons advanced for this include:

•

It has been estimated by the UK

Climate Change Committee that

local authorities have powers or

influence over around a third

of the CO

emissions in their

area and, beyond this, reach to

individuals and businesses such

that they influence more than a

half of all emissions (CCC, 2020).

•

Without levers applied locally

then there will inevitably be

gaps in the emissions reductions

achieved and greater pressure

for national levers to do more.

•

Vagnoni and Moradi (2018)

suggest that local government

is an important level since

it “… is the closest public

organization to the citizens;

local government is in a unique

position to understand, inform,

guide and lead local inhabitants,

Fig. 3 Relative use of bus to access work in Norfolk (grading is best on

comparison with national averages). Source: Morgan et al. (2021).

In the UK, the national government

has been subsidizing the provision

of on-street charge points through

competitive funds which councils can

apply for. Whilst some charge points

are provided on an entirely commercial

basis, others require additional

funding because they are either in

areas of perceived low demand (and

not of commercial interest) or there

are significant electricity network

upgrade costs to be paid.

Figure 4 show the total charge points

per billion vehicle kilometers driven

and those installed new in 2021. Three

of the larger green areas correspond

to London, Birmingham, and Glasgow.

2.2 Locally-led Approaches

Not only Danish DK2020 municipalities

have put climate on top of the agenda.

It is estimated that over 2000 local

Fitzpatrick, W. (2021) An assessment of the motivation and ability of local authorities in the North-West of England to meet the Paris Agreement in relation to terrestrial transport emissions, PhD thesis,

University of Manchester

https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/climate-emergency-declarations-cover-15-million-citizens/

7 CCC (2020). Local Authorities and the Sixth Carbon Budget, Climate Change Committee, London.

4 Morgan, M; Anable, J; Lucas, K (2021). A place-based carbon calculator for England. Presented at the 29th Annual GIS Research UK Conference (GISRUK), Cardiff, Wales, UK.

http://doi.org/10.5281/zeno-

do.4665852

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businesses and industries”.

This argues that local areas

are better equipped to target

local interventions and to form

partnerships.

•

The National Audit Office of

the UK has observed that more

integrated

strategies

with

greater spending freedoms

can deliver better value for

money (NAO, 2021).

Where

local authorities are reliant on

national grant funding streams

which are targeted at individual

mitigation

measures

(e.g.

housing insulation or charge

point installation) then this does

not build continuity within the

organisations and becomes

difficult to manage within the

fixed timescales of the funding

resulting in lower value for

money.

The climate mitigation challenge is

huge, and is the focus of the thinking

in this report.

However, it is one of many challenges

which local (and national) government

is seeking to address. Research shows

that local authorities are better

placed to understand the potential

for different interventions to meet

wider local needs such as equity and

economic development.

The locally targeted application of

the right local policy mix has been

estimated to require less than a third

of the investment costs of uniform

national policies and to save twice

the amount of energy.

More than this,

the wider social benefits of a more

localised approach could be almost

double that of a national approach

(InnovateUK et al., 2022).

It is important, also, to recognise that

local governments are quite diverse.

In research in the UK, Marsden and

Anable (2021) found three different

approaches

to setting carbon budgets

at a sub-national level which could

be found in one city. There were

also widely divergent approaches to

determining what was counted in

carbon reduction commitments and

what was excluded. For example,

some authorities would consider only

what happens inside their boundaries.

Others would consider all emissions

from their residents and others only

look at the emissions from their own

local government organization.

Fig. 4 Distribution of public charge points in the UK.

Source: CCC (2022).

8 Vagnoni, E. & Moradi, A. (2018). Local Government’s contribution to low carbon mobility tran-

tions, Journal of Cleaner Production, 176, 486-502

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.245,

(p. 489)

9 NAO (2021). Local government and net zero in England, National Audit Office, Report HC 304, London.

Innovate UK, PWC, Otley Energy and University of Leeds (2022). Accelerating Net Zero Delivery: Unlocking the benefits of climate action in UK city-regions.

https://www.ukri.org/wp-content/up-

loads/2022/03/IUK-090322-AcceleratingNetZeroDelivery-UnlockingBenefitsClimateActionUKCityRegions.pdf.

Climate Change Committee (2022) Progress in reducing emissions. 2022 Report to Parliament

https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Progress-in-reducing-emissions-2022-Re-

port-to-Parliament.pdf.

si-

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The DK2020 initiative is providing

a common framework for local

authorities to develop their climate

action plans (see chapter 5), so it is not

always the case that coordination has

to be enforced top-down. However,

even well written local plans do not

necessarily pay attention to pan-

regional and national movements and

priorities.

Coherence across local authorities

as well as between local, regional,

and national bodies is also important

to achieving mutually reinforcing

outcomes (see also NAO, 2021).

The arguments for local action are

as persuasive as those for national

action. As noted above they already

form a key part of some national

government’s strategic approach to

delivering decarbonisation. However,

this not a dichotomy between national

and local with one being preferable to

another.

This is particularly true of transport

where some competencies are

nationally held and others locally and

where flows across boundaries matter.

A key challenge is how to provide the

right framework to enable clarity

of responsibilities to be established

and for funding and powers to follow

accordingly where that is justified

(CCC, 2020, previously cited).

2.3 Coordination across sca-

les

for policy to remain contested

(Healy, 1997;

Frederiksson, 2011

Knowledge

exchange

forums,

professional bodies, academics and

the third sector come together to

agree on areas for progress.

Informal co-ordination is a key

part of knowledge transfer within

professional networks and so informal

co-ordination is a part of policy

making. The DK2020 initiative is a

good example of such coordination.

However, informal co-ordination does

not necessarily resolve key conflicts.

If, for example, local authorities want

new powers or require access to

greater or different funding types then

this all needs to happen outside of the

informal mechanism.

There are risks of well-intentioned

strategies being developed which are

divorced from the process for delivering

change. Informal coordination often

works on consensus too and this can

permit difficult decisions to be avoided

and may result in inconsistencies of

approach if progress is only around

the areas which people can agree on.

Just leaving coordination to informal

mechanisms is a risk. However, it

is important to recognize that such

coordination is a part of every-day

policy making and so can be an asset

in sharing knowledge and practice.

2.3.2 Formal Co-ordination

Formal

co-ordination

involves

addressing the nature of the roles and

responsibilities which different actors

in the system have and providing a clear

structure for how this coordination

works. This ties up the development of

strategy with the means for delivering

strategy. Wallsten et al. (2022)

describe a key attribute of formal

co-ordination as leadership, with

the setting of objectives, monitoring

mode share changes, and the

understanding of social, distributional

and environmental impacts as key

(drawing on Pangbourne et al. 2020

For climate policy, formal co-ordination

means the clear establishment of the

responsibilities of different tiers of

government and organisations and an

elaboration of the data and accounting

arrangements (see Marsden and

Anable, 2021, previously cited).

Our review finds that coordination

across scales is important. How

best to organise that coordination

remains to be determined. There are

no universal answers to this question

given the different institutional

traditions and geographies which

exist in different countries. Here,

we nevertheless review the general

options for coordinating mechanisms,

sometimes referred to as modes of

governance, before exploring how

the issue of multi-scalar coordination

is being managed in the UK, Sweden,

and Denmark.

2.3.1 Informal Co-ordination

Informal co-ordination builds on the

tradition of the soft infrastructures

of planning, whereby problems

are recognised to not be clearly

understood and for the pathways

Healey, P (2007). Urban complexity and spatial strategies: Towards a relational planning for our

times. Routledge, London

Fredriksson, C (2011). Planning in the ’New Reality’ – Strategic Elements and Approaches in Swedish Municipalities. DOCTORAL DISSERTATION, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

Pangbourne, K; Mladenovic, M; Stead, D; Milakis, D. (2020). Questionning Mobility as a Service: Unanticipated implications for society and government, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Prac-

tice, 131, pp.35-49

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2.3.3 Obligation

Obligation is a special case of formal

co-ordination. Obligation is where

there is some formalised mechanism

which details the conditions which

need to be met by lower tiers of

government (or the private sector)

to access funding or powers on offer

from higher tiers of government.

An example in the local transport

climate domain is the Zero Growth

Goals which have been established in

Norway with the major cities and their

surrounding local authorities. In order

to access the grant funding from the

national government, each area has

to commit to a plan which allows their

areas to develop with no net increase

in vehicular traffic (Tønnesen et al.,

2019).

In the UK, local authorities were

previously required to set targets for

their local transport plans for eight

national indicators. The funding

available to the authorities to deliver

the plan was linked to the ambition of

the targets and, over time, the delivery

against plan (Marsden et al., 2009).

Such arrangements are difficult to

establish because it is often not clear

exactly what kinds of outcomes could

be achieved for what level of funding.

It is also possible that the fixing of

funding to a small sub-set of outcomes

leads to the ignoring of other

considerations which might otherwise

have been seen to be important (e.g.

improving health outcomes).

2.3.4 Tools of Coordination

Wallsten et al. (2022)

describe

different governance tools which can

be deployed to shape the relationship

between national and local levels to

facilitate the transition to a lower

carbon future. These tools can all be

applied, to a greater or lesser degree,

across whatever type of coordinating

mechanism is in place.

Howlett (2009)

breaks the tools

into three broad categories: of

information (e.g. knowledge sharing

partnerships), authority (powers) and

treasure (funds). Whilst it is often

considered purely in the context of

government-government

relations

it is possible to enable market actors

through removing regulation or

changing subsidy and taxes. The tools

of coordination therefore, cover quite

a broad range of different actions and

these can take different formats.

Funding can be provided, for example,

through grants which are attached to

specific initiatives (e.g., public charge

point provision) or grant funding

allocated without conditions (as part

of a formal coordination agreement).

It could be permission to borrow

rather than direct grants, which

provides a greater level of flexibility

and also responsibility than direct

grant provision.

Similarly, legal instruments can

provide the option for local authorities

to adopt or they can require all

local authorities to adopt. Many

tools of coordination are already in

place, which is a recognition of the

relationship between responsibilities,

resources and capacity to act across

scales of government and between

the public and private sector.

It is important to consider what the

best balance of coordination and

deployment of tools of coordination

is for any given setting. For example,

in Norway, much is agreed up front

about the levels of ambition and

the requirements for funding and

freedoms that might be necessary to

deliver on the goals. One would then

expect far more limited intervention

with specific initiatives and grant

funding from the national level beyond

that already agreed. We explore these

trade-offs further in the case studies

in Sections 3 to 5.

Tønnesen, A., Krogstad, J.R., Christiansen, P; And Isaksson, K. (2019). National goals and tools to fulfil them: A study of opportunities and pitfalls in Norweigian metagovernance of urban mobility, Trans-

port Policy, 81, 35-44

Marsden, G; Nellthorp, J; Kelly, C. (2009). The likely impacts of target setting and performance rewards in local transport, Transport Policy, 16, (2), pp. 59-67

Wallsten, A; Henriksson, M; Isaksson, K (2022). The Role of Local Public Authorities in Steering toward Smart and Sustainable Mobility: Findings from the Stockholm Metropolitan Area, Planning Practice

& Research, 37:5, pp. 532-546

17 Howlett, M. (2009) Governance modes, policy regimes, and operational plans: A multi-level nested model of policy instrument choice an policy design, Policy Sciences, 42(1):pp.73-89

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3 Great Britain

3.1 National Climate Policy

The UK Government established a

Cli-

mate Change Act

which now commits

the UK to achieving net zero emissions

by 2050. As well as an end date, the

Act provides an obligation to meet a

series of five year budgets set along

the route. Advice on the budgets is

provided by the

Climate Change Com-

mittee,

an independent advisory body

established through the legislation.

The Government is not obliged to ac-

cept the advice of the Committee but

has done so on every occasion. The

latest budget agreed is the

6th Car-

bon Budget,

which commits the UK to

achieving a

78%

reduction in UK ter-

ritorial emissions between 1990 and

2035 (equivalent to a 63% reduction

from 2019 levels).

The Climate Change Act was initially

established in 2008 with an 80%

reduction goal by 2050 and the

budgetary pathway was not specified

to the same extent it now is. Whilst this

stimulated action across sectors, there

was still space for different sectors

to argue that they were difficult to

decarbonise and therefore formed

part of the 20% of residual emissions.

Arguments were made that setting

goals for individual sectors would be

economically distorting. However,

2050 is now less than three decades

away and all sectors of the economy

need to act under the new net zero

commitment.

Negative

emission

technologies

and natural offsets are almost

entirely focused on covering aspects

of farming and aviation. Surface

transport, for example, has an

absolute zero emissions allocation.

Each sector of Government in England

now has a decarbonisation strategy

which is brought together in a whole

of government

Net Zero Strategy.

Although each Department has its

own strategy, responsibility for carbon

targets is held across government

through the Department for Business,

Energy and Industrial Strategy

and

there are no formal consequences

for any individual Department falling

short provided the overarching

commitments are met.

Scotland and Wales have their own

Fig. 5 Progress and Projections for CO

emissions from Surface Transport from the 6th

Carbon Budget (dashed line reflects future anticipated pathway)

climate change legislation and goals,

consistent with the UK Climate Change

Act. Scotland has a more ambitious

date of 2045 for reaching net zero.

In July 2021, the Department for

Transport published its

strategy for

decarbonising transport.

Transport is

now the largest sector for emissions in

3.2 Transport

sation Strategy

Decarboni-

the UK economy, accounting for 27% of

emissions in 2019. It is the sector that

had made least progress, almost static

from 1990 levels before the pandemic

(where reductions in travel demand

make the current ‘baseline’ difficult

to assess). For those action which

are coordinated at a whole UK scale

(e.g. aviation policy, vehicle emission

standards), the document covers

all of the devolved administrations.

The Net Zero Strategy was

challenged in the UK High Court

and found to not yet meet the requirements of the legislation for ambition or transparency

During the writing of this report, the Department has been split so there is now a Department of Energy Security and Net Zero which takes this responsibility

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However, the provisions on local

transport only apply to England.

The Transport Decarbonisation Plan is

organised around six key themes:

•

Accelerating modal shift to

public and active transport

Decarbonising road transport

Decarbonising how we get our

goods

UK as a hub for green transport

technology and innovation

Place-based

solutions

emissions reduction

There are areas where there are

clear innovation needs (such as

addressing aviation emissions) or

improving battery technology which

form part of the connection to the

technology, innovation and ‘green

growth’ strategy. The global economy

theme reflects the UK’s role in

international bodies on maritime and

aviation where the strategy is one of

influencing rather than being able to

set policies independently.

Of particular importance to this note

however is the theme on ‘Place-based

solutions’. The

document

states that

“there is no uniform approach to

decarbonisation and each place in the

UK has its own unique role to play in

ensuring that the UK meets its target

of net zero by 2050. For transport,

local and regional level organisations

are often best placed to make the

decisions that will deliver the practical

changes required, as well as ensuring

local communities and businesses are

engaged.” (p147).

Reducing carbon in a global

economy

Broadly, the themes describe a

transition in vehicle technologies

through electrification, the use of

hydrogen, ammonia (in shipping) and

increasingly sustainable drop in fuels.

The approach has resulted in phase

out dates for the sale of fossil fuel

vehicles in various categories from

cars to light heavy goods vehicles.

In parallel, there is an emphasis on

improving alternatives to the car

through national programmes on

bus

service improvements, zero emission

buses

and

walking and cycling.

climate change emissions from the

use of transport. However, as with

all Governments, there are a range

of interactions with other Ministries

which are necessary to effect change.

First amongst these interactions is with

the Ministry of Communities, Housing

and Local Government which has

responsibility for the planning process.

This involves setting housing targets

for different parts of the country,

agreeing the National Planning Policy

statements which govern how the

planning system should be enacted

and setting out requirements for all

new homes to have electric vehicle

charge point provision.

It is well understood that integrated

land-use and transport planning can

reduce the need for travel and increase

the proportion of journeys which

are made by active travel and public

transport. In the early 2000s, the

Transport and Planning departments

were merged in central government,

although this did not last long, nor

did it fully resolve the challenges of

integrated transport and land-use

policy (Marsden & Beecroft 2002)

The

national

guidance

identifies

the opportunities for integration

and encourages the siting of new

developments in places which

encourage this, through an agreed

‘Local Plan’. However, despite the

encouragement

sustainable

development principles it continues

to be the case that car dependent

developments are being built in areas

which are poorly accessible by public

transport (Transport

for New Homes,

2022

Whilst the management of the

transport system sits with the

Department for Transport, the

responsibility for industrial strategy

around the future technologies used

to power transport sits within the

Department of Business, Energy,

and Industrial Strategy (although

it is worth noting that in February

2023 this Department has been

further divided). Decisions on vehicle

standards are led from BEIS, but in

conjunction with DfT. There is an

interesting and long-standing cross-

departmental body between BEIS and

DfT called the

Office for Zero Emission

Vehicles

which develops strategy and

discharges funds related to stimulating

the transition away from fossil fuels

3.3 Working Across Ministries

The Department for Transport is the

main Ministry with responsibilities for

the enactment of policies to tackle

Marsden, G & Beecroft M (2002). Crisis of darma? A summary of the response to the fuel crisis in the UK- pp. 259-298 In: G. Lyons, K. Chatterjee (Eds.), Transport Lessons from the Fuel Tax Protests of

2000, Ashgate, Aldershot

Transport for New Homes (2022).

Building Car Dependency: The Tarmac Suburbs of the Future.

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Fig. 6 Department for Transport Spending in 2020-21. Source:

National Audit Office

based on Department for Transport Accounts – NAO, 2021

such as zero emission bus grants,

consumer purchase incentives and

public charge point subsidy.

The divide between transport and

energy also means that the transport

system only counts the emissions of

fossil fuel driven miles in its carbon

accounting. The emissions associated

with the electricity used to power

EVs (the UK 2022 average carbon

intensity was 182 g CO

per kWh) is

counted in the BEIS energy accounts.

Emissions associated with industry

for the building of vehicles, steel and

concrete production for infrastructure

are also accounted for as industry

emissions rather than ‘transport’.

This can be problematic as the claims

being made about the benefits of

new infrastructure on smoothing

traffic flow and therefore reducing

emissions can be more than offset

by the emissions in constructing new

assets, all of which also occur early in

the carbon budget period (Marsden

et al.,

2022).

This is recognized in the

Transport Decarbonisation Plan but

how to deal with this in infrastructure

decisions remains highly contested

(with several court cases). The Welsh

Government has reviewed its entire

roads programme in the light of the

climate imperative, establishing a

series of principles for future decision-

making (RRP, 2023)

. Only 17 of the

58 schemes which were in the initial

roads programme have been found

to be consistent with these new

principles.

It is also important to recognize the

role of HM Treasury, the UK’s finance

ministry. The Treasury publishes a

National Infrastructure Plan

and sets

out the rules for assessing spending on

government projects and programmes

(The Green Book) which are then

implemented within each Ministry.

The allocation of Capital funding for

projects and Revenue funding for

on-going expenditure is a key tool in

shaping what programmes and policies

can be delivered. Every three years

there is a Spending Review where

Departments make a bid for their

forward plan, although recently this

has been an annual process because

of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine

creating a less stable fiscal position.

HM Treasury is also responsible for

any tax changes at a national level

and for deciding what freedoms

it will allow for local authorities.

3.4 From National to Local

Policy

The UK is formed of four countries.

Overall governance is conducted by

the UK Parliament which also sets

policies for England. The devolved

administrations of Scotland, Wales and

Northern Ireland have varying degrees

of responsibility for transport.

In this

section the main examples draw on

Marsden, G., Lokesh, K. And Densley-Tingley (2022) Policy Briefing: Everything Counts: Why transport infrastructure emissions matter for decision makers, DecarboN8 report.

Roads Review Panel (2023)

The Future of Road Investment in Wales: Advice from the Independent Panel Appointed by the Welsh Government,

7 A full description is available

here.

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experiences in England. Contrasts

are also made with arrangements in

Scotland where these are deemed

relevant to Denmark.

3.4.1 National

Across the UK, local authorities have

limited local tax raising powers and are

therefore highly depending on national

government for

funding

to deliver new

transport initiatives. Figure 6 shows

the spending split across different

areas in the DfT for 2020-21. Spending

on funding for decarbonisation often

fulfils multiple purposes. For example,

in expanding walking and cycling

there is an expectation of lowering

congestion and getting better health

outcomes. Even in spending money on

electric buses there are co-benefits to

local air quality.

So, whilst some funds might be very

specifically about decarbonisation

(e.g., charge point provision), most are

not and so decarbonisation is treated

as part of wider transport strategies.

The annual formula funding (£2,931m

in Figure 6 or 7%) has been linked to

the development of local transport

plans. These are supposed to be

produced every five years with a 15-

year strategic vision. Whilst the role of

these plans diminished in the previous

decade, the Department for Transport

will require authorities to develop a

new round of strategic plans which

set out their carbon budget for the

area and what the quantifiable carbon

reductions that can be achieved

through the strategy will be (these are

referred to as Local Transport Plans

which are broadly equivalent to the

EU Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans).

Whilst the guidance is subject to a

consultation, there are indications that

more of the decarbonisation funding

will come through the allocations

attached to each plan and less through

competition funding. Every transport

authority in England will have a

decarbonisation strategy with some

form of quantitative carbon reduction

goal against which funding and the

need for other regulatory changes

will be assessed. This is an example

of formal co-ordination. There are

tensions still to be resolved.

The

Transport

Decarbonisation

Plan identified up to 15 different

competition based or ring-fenced

funding schemes which are currently

in operation. Part of the consultation

is to agree how many of these should

be consolidated into the annual

block grant allocation. Competition

based funding is a ‘treasure’ form

of coordination, but to what extent

does it need to exist alongside well

formulated plans?

Finally,

national

government

recognises that, particularly outside of

the largest cities, the knowledgebase

for transport decarbonisation amongst

local authorities is quite weak. A new

national toolkit

has been developed to

promote knowledge sharing and will

be regularly updated which describes

various options and cases studies,

joining up other sources of

guidance.

3.4.2 Regional

Regional government has a mixed

history in the UK. In England, it is

easier to talk in terms of ‘sub-national’

government as regional planning was

disbanded between 2008 and 2010.

There is one statutory sub-national

body (Transport for the North) which

exists to bring together decision-

makers across the North of England

and advise on infrastructure needs for

the region.

It has developed a

Decarbonisation

Strategy

which adopts a regional

carbon budget and makes direct

reference to the different pace at

which more urban and more rural

authorities will be able to decarbonise

due to the different mode shift

potential available to them. Other

sub-national transport bodies exist

but are not statutory.

There are no formal responsibilities for

carbon reduction at a regional scale.

The sub-national transport bodies

each act as a major knowledge sharing

hub as well as having convening power

to discuss shared issues. Transport for

the North has developed a strategic

model for the whole of the North of

England and has used this to develop a

pan-northern

charge point installation

strategy

for supporting longer-

distance trips and freight transport.

In Scotland there are

seven

regional

transport partnerships who have

responsibility for developing an

overall integrated transport strategy

for their regions. This pre-dates the

carbon targets and there is no formal

requirement for regional target

setting. Whilst the partnerships are

responsible for running a limited

number of transport services (e.g.

Glasgow Metro), they have generally

been

found to be underpowered.

They perform an important leadership

and convening role with, for

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example, the Highlands and Islands

partnership successfully coordinating

a bid for a rural Mobility as a Service

app

programme from national

government.

3.4.3 Local

Until the publication of the Transport

Decarbonisation Plan in England

there was a resistance to considering

formal national requirements for local

authorities to set carbon targets and,

within that to set sectoral targets.

However, most local authorities

within England had declared a climate

emergency which generally involves

a local commitment to reduce

emissions in line with the goals of

the Paris Agreement (although the

interpretation and implementation

of this was hugely varied)

. Many

local authorities set formalized goals,

although far fewer did so for transport.

The net outcome of the laissez-

faire bottom up approach is a messy

picture where most authorities do not

yet have a transport target. Of those

that do, some only look at emissions

from their own activities and some

look across their whole area. The

national framework will move from

informal coordination to formal

coordination and should reduce these

inconsistencies.

However, the informal approach

has resulted in some innovations

which reflect the perspective and

opportunities at a local scale. Several

authorities have identified the

importance of rethinking their strategy

in the light of the climate emergency

to bring together transport and land-

use (see Greater Manchester case

study).

Bottom up strategies also enable a

more joined up approach to integrating

carbon reduction with other local

agendas such as social inclusion,

housing and economic growth (see

Leeds Case Study). So, whilst the

national framework will ensure a more

consistent overall approach to setting

carbon targets, there remains a strong

local imperative to tailor this to best

meet wider local goals.

Local authorities have formal

responsibility for the delivery of large

parts of the ‘avoid’ and ‘shift’ agenda

which they have been exercising for

air quality, congestion and safety

management for decades. These

powers are now also put to use for

transport decarbonisation. In addition,

greater emphasis is being given to

local authority roles in supporting the

transition to zero emission vehicles

(‘improve’).

Their direct actions include allocation

of roadspace for active travel, the

provision of space for on-street

charging infrastructure, traffic signal

control, infrastructure construction

and subsidising public transport

services. Their principal pricing tool

is parking charges but there are now

five cities

with low emission zones

and Nottingham has a

Workplace

Parking Levy.

They are also the land-

use planning bodies responsible for

strategic site allocation and specific

planning site decisions. Most public

transport services are determined

by private sector operators and it is

only evening, weekend and other

non-commercial services which local

authorities directly influence.

Local authorities are now required by

the Department for Transport to work

in partnership with bus companies

in bidding for funds for electric

buses and bus service improvements

reflecting the need for interventions

from both parties to achieve the

desired outcomes. The partnership

Bottom-up strategies

also enable a more joined

up approach to integrating

carbon reduction with

other local agendas.

arrangements are set out in Bus

Service Improvement Plans which are

a condition of receiving funding.

The Climate Change Committee

estimates that almost

one quarter

of the emissions reductions required

between now and 2035 will come

from mode-shift and demand

reduction policies, most of which

will be led locally. In addition, local

authorities will stimulate EV uptake

through low emission zones and

electric vehicle charge infrastructure

provision. Overall, the

Climate Change

Committee estimates

that more than

50% of the climate mitigation effort

will come from decisions made at a

local and individual level.

Local authorities also play an important

role as conveners of action amongst

other organisations. This can be the

wider public sector where, taken

8 Marsden, G; Anable, J; Lokesh, K; Walker, R; McCulloch, S; Jenkinson, K. (2020). ‘Decarbonising Transport: Getting Carbon Ambition Right’, Local Government Association: London

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together, health services and local

government can sometimes provide a

large proportion of total employment.

They work with bigger businesses to

coordinate corporate travel planning

commitments which form part of

planning consents for new buildings

and changes in use of building stock.

Even within the formal Local Transport

Plan system there remains a mix of

formal and informal coordination in

play.

Greater

Manchester

Combined

Authority is a grouping of 10

local authorities centred on the

conurbation of Manchester. It has a

directly elected Mayor. Transport for

Greater Manchester is the executive

body responsible for strategic

transport planning and coordinating

public transport investments and

the management of a major highway

network within the area.

It works with the 10 districts to

deliver changes to infrastructure

and traffic management under one

unified

strategy.

The strategy has won

professional body awards because

of its treatment of integration across

modes but also across the whole

conurbation. It addresses different

types of places and journeys and

targets interventions accordingly.

So, in the connected neighbourhoods

section there is an emphasis on local

walking and cycling trips and 15 minute

neighbourhood style accessibility

changes. For trips into the regional

centre of Manchester there is a more

aggressive approach to mode shift

and demand management. However,

it is recognised that such an approach

will be more difficult for movements

across the city. Nine of the ten local

authorities are also developing a joint

spatial plan so that new development

sites join up with the transport

investments.

The strategy was part of a five-year

funding settlement agreed between

the Mayoral Combined Authority and

the National Government. This also

devolved some powers which Greater

Manchester has used, bringing the

public transport network back into a

public sector managed process with

route-based tendering to be used

across the city. However, the decision

to integrate spatial and transport

planning was advanced without any

requirement to do so and is seen

to be important locally to joining

up the goals for economic growth,

decarbonisation

and

transport

investment. This, it is hoped, will make

Greater Manchester more competitive

in seeking future investment from

national government competitions.

3.5.2 Integrating Social and Economic

Planning

Leeds City Council published its

transport strategy in 2022. There was

no national requirement at the time

for Leeds to publish its strategy and,

in the Local Transport Plan process,

Leeds will submit jointly with four

other adjacent areas as part of a West

Yorkshire wide submission.

Leeds is the largest of the five districts

in the West Yorkshire area and set a

whole local area goal of zero carbon

emissions by 2030. The Plan was a

response to this imperative covering

the transport sector and would be

used as input to the wider area Local

Transport Plan strategy.

The vision in the strategy is for

Leeds to be “a city where you don’t

need a car. Where everyone has an

affordable, accessible and zero carbon

choice in how they travel...”. It sets

out three broad objectives which it

seeks to achieve through the plan

which, in addition to zero carbon (with

a 2030 aspiration) includes inclusive

economic growth and improved

health and well-being.

The strategy recognises that 30% of

households in Leeds do not have a car

and that addressing decarbonisation

only through an electrification switch

would be too slow and also fail to

address the structural inequalities

in the city. There is an emphasis on

creating a more integrated system

3.5 Cases

3.5.1 Integrating Spatial Planning

eig

cte

nne

the

cros

cit

aro

the

reg

cit

lly

connecte

tti

Residents

Businesses

Visitors

Fig 7. Themes in Greater Manchester

Transport Strategy 2040

ntre

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with more people choosing to access

mobility on demand rather than

being reliant on individualised car

ownership.

This enables the Council to draw

in resources from other national

funding competitions beyond the

Department for Transport to help

deliver on its wider vision. The wider

framing on health is being used to

enable transport to support accessing

funds for public health improvements

for its cycling and walking ambitions

which will also contribute to the

decarbonisation goals.

3.5.3 Accelerating Zero Emission Bus

Deployment

The Department for Transport has

made funding available to assist with

the transition to zero emission buses

(which in the UK is almost exclusively

electric). This covers some of the

additional costs to operators over Euro

VI diesel bus equivalent buses and

costs to upgrading depots for smart

charging. The City of York is a historic

town in the North of England with a

network of Park and Ride sites around

its outer ring road.

As the owner of the Park and Ride

sites, the City of York can specify

in its tender documents the level

of emissions of the bus fleet which

bidders can put forward to compete.

It has used this lever since 2014 when

it adopted its first electric buses. It

has subsequently secured funding

from the national government Zero

Emission Bus competition to transition

the entire Park and Ride fleet and,

more recently most of the local

services by 2024. It has supported this

through investment in the Park and

Ride sites including the addition of

hyper charging hubs

supported with

solar energy capture.

York has been particularly pro-active in

pushing for adoption because there is

a good fit of electric buses to the duty

cycle of the services and because there

are significant air quality benefits to be

achieved in the narrow streets of the

city centre. York is current refreshing

its transport strategy in line with the

national guidance but has continued

to progress key investments in the

interim, reflecting the need to make

tactical progress as well as improving

the overall joined up strategy.

The differential progress with the

adoption of electric buses across local

authorities shows the importance

of local leadership and action. Here,

York had a clear policy commitment,

multiple policy drivers and, through

Park and Ride bus in York.

Credit: First Bus, UK

the procurement process, a formal

lever which could be applied to

encourage the operator transition.

However, this has also only been

possible with national competition

funding given the limited annual block

grant allocations and the additional

costs of shifting to electric buses in the

early part of the transition from diesel.

3.6 Summary

In England, the carbon management

system is aligning through a formal

coordination process based on a

requirement for every local authority

to have a Local Transport Plan (SUMP).

This is a pre-existing tool of formal

coordination which the DfT had

previously used quite intensively but,

in the past decade, had somewhat let

lapse. This approach is going to help

harmonise what local authorities are

doing in terms of how they approach

accounting for carbon but provides

freedom for locally relevant strategy

choices.

A key question is how these will be

resourced and whether the DfT will

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pool funding and provide greater

local freedom or continue to allocate

funds through a series of more ad-

hoc challenge funds. It is currently

steering through the use of these

funds (treasure), partly because of

an absence of knowledge about what

local authorities would do if given a

large annual block of funds.

Again, the Local Transport Plans

should help overcome this knowledge

gap but, in a world where public

finances are tight, it remains tempting

for governments to allocate funds

through competitions rather than

spreading resources more thinly. UK

local authorities have a relatively

weak tax base and so the DfT has

significant influence on the approach

of local authorities through how they

distribute resources.

National and regional bodies are also

playing a role in stimulating innovation

and sharing knowledge about existing

innovations as many smaller local

authorities lack the staff capacity to

cover the wider range of demands

which decarbonisation is placing on

them.

The Committee on Climate Change

(2020, previously cited) in the UK

concluded, as part of establishing its

carbon budget for the period to 2037,

that for local authorities to effectively

play their role there was a need for:

•

“Framework:

agreed

framework for delivery for Net

Zero incorporating local and

national climate action;

•

Financing: Appropriate long-

term financing to support local

authorities in delivering Net

Zero;

•

Flexibility: Local operational

flexibility about how local areas

address climate change; and

•

Facilitation: coherent policy

and powers for the facilitation

of delivery.”

Comparing the bullets with the

different modes of governing, the

Committee is advocating a blend of

formal co-ordination and enabling

tools of coordination, particularly

around funding and powers. There is

a general acceptance that better value

for money will be achieved through

longer-term

programmes

with

greater funding certainty rather than

managing lots of initiatives through

competition funds (NAO, 2021).

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4 Sweden

4.1 Sweden’s Climate Policy

In 2017 Sweden adopted a so-called

National Climate Policy Framework.

The main element of the framework

is the Climate Act of 2018. The Act

instructs Parliament to define overall

Climate goals and prescribes various

duties for the Government. The Act

also instigates a Climate Policy Council

to provide independent advice to

Government. The climate goals are

not spelled out in in the Act itself,

but it has the clear role to safeguard

the delivery of Sweden’s climate

commitments and goals.

The current long-term goal defined

by Parliament is

net zero by 2045

including a minimum 85% reduction

of emissions compared to 1990. There

are interim indicative goals for the

non-ETS-sectors of 63% reduction by

2030 and 75% by 2040. In addition,

the framework includes a separate

and remarkably steep goal to reduce

emissions from

domestic transport

(except domestic aviation)

by 70%

from 2010 to 2030.

According to the Climate Act,

the Government must deliver a

comprehensive Climate Action Plan

every four years, demonstrating how

goals defined by Parliament will be

fulfilled.

The first Plan was adopted in 2019,

and the second one is currently in

preparation for 2023. The government

must also each year submit a status

and outlook report on climate policy in

connection with the budget process.

The Climate Policy Council delivers an

annual review plus a four-year report

corresponding to the Government

submissions. Interestingly, the task

of the Climate Council is not limited

to review climate policy proper but

includes how the full ensemble of

government policies corresponds

to the adopted climate goals. The

Council (and others)

has for example

found the Climate Policy Framework

to be insufficiently embedded in

the general government machinery

and the Council has also regularly

commented on and critiqued national

transport policy (Klimatpolitiska Rådet

2019;

2022).

The Climate Policy Framework and

the associated goals are still in force

after the shift to a new right-wing

Government in October 2022.

standards, taxes and subsidies, vehicle

regulations, infrastructure investment,

and regional and urban transport

planning. Background analysis to

the Action Plan demonstrated that

significant additional policies to

deliver a drastic 8% annual reduction

from 2019 onwards would be needed,

but the plan itself did not include a

full trajectory or timetable for how

the government would deliver 70%

reduction by 2030 or contribute to net

zero in 2045.

The Action Plan (along with several

other government policies) outlines a

three-pronged strategy for transport:

•

more energy-efficient vehicles,

•

clean fuels/electrification, and

•

‘a transport-efficient society’.

4.2 Transport Decarbonisati-

on policy

Despite the separate 70% climate goal

for domestic transport Sweden does

not have a separate

climate strategy

document for the transport sector. The

closest to a national decarbonisation

strategy today is the 50-page+ chapter

on transport (plus sections in other

chapters) in the Government’s first

Climate Action Plan from 2019.

The transport chapter includes an

extensive mix of discussions and actual

policy actions in fields such as fuels

The latter is generally understood

as reductions in traffic volumes and

shifts away from cars to other modes,

without reducing overall accessibility.

For example: Berndt, K (2018) Mycket prat men lite verkstad: Att förstå det klimatpolitiska ramverket med hjälp av idéer om metagovernance och särkoppling. Stockholms universitet Statsvetenskapliga

institutionen

http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:1268925/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Regeringens proposition 2019/20:65: En samlad politik för klimatet – klimatpolitisk handlingsplan

[in Swedish]

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While a new Action Plan is in

preparation, the most recent forecast

from the Swedish Environmental

Protection Agency, Naturvårdsverket,

has suggested that the 70% target

is now within reach, as shown in the

graph below. This optimistic outlook

is mainly due to Sweden’s extreme

biofuel blending escalator (by far the

steepest in Europe), adopted after the

Climate Action Plan in 2019.

However, various policy documents

have recognized major uncertainties

about costs and effects of Sweden’s

strong dependency on biofuel in

this strategy. Moreover, the 2045

neutrality goal would still not be met,

even with aggressive biofuel policy in

place. The targets are further exposed

by a complete turnaround by the new

Government, now aiming to limit

blending mandates to the

lowest

level accepted by the EU. How this

may impact the balance of strategies

towards the transport goal is yet

unclear.

overall Transport Policy Objective “to

ensure the economically efficient and

sustainable provision of transport

services for people and business

throughout the country”. The objective

has two subgoals with several interim

goals;

the

functional

subgoal for

accessibility which points to

the importance of providing

everyone with basic, good-

quality accessibility

the

impact

subgoal which

points to concerns for safety,

the environment, and health

Following the 2019 Climate Action

Plan the 70% climate goal for domestic

transport has been incorporated in

this framework as an interim target

under the impact subgoal.

This means that all national transport

institutions and plans have become

formally required to pursue and

respond to the climate goal for

transport. This explicitly also includes

the statutory National Infrastructure

Plans and accompanying Regional

Infrastructure Plans with a 12-year

horizon that Government formally

renews every four years.

Fig. 8 GHG projections for Sweden. Blue is the recent forecast. Dotted brown before

new biofuel escalator . Source:

Naturvårdsverket

(2022)

4.3 Horizontal coordination of

transport decarbonisation

Since 2008 Transport policy in

Sweden has been guided by the

Naturvårdverket (2023) ”Når

Sverige de nationella klimatmålen?”

[in Swedish]

Government bill 2008/09:93 [in Swedish] Regeringens proposition. Mål för framtidens resor och transporter. p. 14

Transport Analysis (2022).

Follow-up of transport policy objectives. Summary Report 2022:11

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Another component of Swedish

transport and Infrastructure policy

that has been linked into the

decarbonisation agenda is the so-

called ‘4-step principle’. The principle

installs a hierarchy of decisions on

transport.

The first step should be to ‘rethink’

transport problems and possibly

avoid them, while building new

infrastructure is only the fourth and

last resort (see Box 1). Following the

Climate Action Plan, Government

instructed the Transport Agency

to apply the principle in preparing

the National Infrastructure Plan, as

a means to pursue the ‘transport-

efficient society’, the third leg’ of

transport decarbonisation policy

(see previous section). There is much

controversy over this, however.

To enhance inter-agency coordination

for

transport

decarbonisation,

Government has also incorporated

a responsibility for climate in the

formal operating instructions for all

six key government agencies involved

in transport policy and has further

instructed them to collaborate. As part

of this procedure the six agencies were

requested to deliver a joint fossil-free

transport strategy.

The completed

strategy proposed around 90 actions,

with a follow-up program. Some

of the actions were implemented

but the government as such never

adopted the strategy. Inter-agency

coordination continues on an ad hoc

basis. In view of these actions several

independent bodies have nevertheless

critiqued what they see as limited

horizontal coordination. The ‘Climate

Law Inquiry’ of 2022 found it ‘unclear’

“…how

the national plan for transport

infrastructure, the county plans for

regional transport infrastructure and

the Swedish Transport Administration

are to address the need for a transport-

efficient society”.

The Climate Policy Council in

its 2022 report also found that

Swedish Infrastructure policy is not

sufficiently adapted to the Climate

Policy Framework. Among the

recommendations from the Council

include are that key agencies like the

Transport Agency be instructed to

prepare actual decarbonisation plans.

Box 1 The 4- step principle

1. Rethink

Here, it is investigated whether different types of interventions can be

used to solve a certain identified shortage through reduced transport

demand or by transferring trips and transport to more efficient modes.

2. Optimize

This step includes efforts in the form of planning and influencing to use

existing infrastructure in a more efficient way. Bus lanes on busy streets

are an example of one action within this step.

3. Rebuild

This step involves considering, if the need exists, limited remodeling.

Example can be traffic safety measures such as center rails or load-bearing

measures.

4. Build new

This step means that, if the need cannot be met in the previous three

steps, consider new investments. Expansion of a road to motorway

standard and expansion to double tracks on railways are examples of such

investments.

Based on Trafikverket (2022)

It may be noted that the principle has so far not been widely applied (see for example

Trivector 2021,

in Swedish) while the Transport Agency itself has deemed steps 1 or 2 (= applying measures like spa-

tial planning, modal shift, road user charging, etc.) mostly out of their scope (Trafikverket (2022)

Proposal national plan for transport infrastructure 2022–2033 – Summary in English)

SOFT (2020). Samordningsuppdrag för omställning av transportsektorn till fossilfrihet –

slutrapport.

[in Swedish]

Slutbetänkande av Klimaträttsutredningen, SOU 2022:21, Stockholm 2022 (English

Summary,

p. 55)

Klimatpolitiska rådet (2022). Årsrapport, p 32. and p 88. [in Swedish]

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4.4 Role of regional and local

planning authorities

4.4.1 Regions

Sweden has 20 regions, which play

significant roles in planning for spatial

development, transport, and climate.

The regions, also known as ‘Län’ were

before fully controlled by central

government agents, ‘Länsstyrelser’,

but recent reforms have established

politically elected regional bodies

that have taken over many functions

from the nationally appointed bodies,

which remain.

The regions are directly involved in

both climate and transport planning.

In 2008 the government instructed all

its ‘Länsstyrelser’ to adopt

Regional

Energy and Climate strategies,

jointly

with regions and municipalities. These

strategies typically include targets and

scenarios also for transport energy

and GHG emissions. The strategies

must be aligned with infrastructure

and other plans, and they must be

regularly reviewed. They are however

non-legally binding and hence more

informal coordination mechanisms.

4.4.2 Case: Regional

Infrastructure plan

Transport

Each region is legally required to

prepare

regional

Transport

Infrastructure Plan serving as parallel

complement

the

National

Infrastructure Plan. The Regional plan

must also pursue the Transport Policy

objectives and follow the 4-step

principle. Most of the funding for

regional plans comes from the state,

and the Swedish Transport Agency is

the key implementing body of the

plan. Regions also typically serve as

the Public Transport Authority for the

respective area and its municipalities.

The regions adopt a

Transport Supply

Plan (‘Trafikförsörjningsprogram)

and

provide nearly all public subsidy for

(non-national) PT.

An example of a regional plan is

the 2022-33 Infrastructure Plan

for

Gävleborg Län

to the north of

Stockholm. Sustainability, traffic safety,

accessibility and green transition are

overarching priorities. Among the

goals in the plan are to have a fossil

free vehicle fleet by 2030 and zero

Regional infrastrukturplan 2022 – 2033 för Gävleborgs län

[in Swedish]

Fig. 9

Gävleborg Infrastructure Plan

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emission ‘in the long term’. The plan

includes specified funded measures

for roads, public transport terminals,

bike routes and lanes, traffic safety

measures, and unspecified pools for

cycling and public transport initiatives

etc. The budget is 1,06 Billion SEK

(= 100 M €) of which roughly half

goes to road projects. There are no

measures for step1 and 2 of the 4-step

principle (‘rethink’, and ‘optimize’)

as these steps allegedly ‘do not fall

within what can be funded within the

existing framework’. Also notably, the

infrastructure plan makes no explicit

reference to the regional Energy and

Climate strategy adopted only two

years earlier.

Hence, the coordination of green

transport actions is in principle

possible through both convening

powers and treasure at the regional

level in Sweden. Yet, the case does

not demonstrate that this option

is necessarily always exploited to

the fullest for moving transport

decarbonisation forward.

4.4.3 Municipalities

Sweden’s 290 Municipalities have

the dominant role in spatial planning.

Planning is regulated by the Planning

and Building Act of 2010 (with

subsequent revisions) providing the

legal basis for regional and municipal

spatial plans

, together with other

provisions. Municipalities adopt two

levels of plans, ‘Översiktsplaner’

(Comprehensive Plans), that are

overarching and non-binding, and

‘Detaljplaner’ (Detailed Development

Plans) with binding regulation of land

use and buildings. The municipalities

are sovereign planning authorities.

Yet, Comprehensive Plans must

formally respect and reflect national

and regional goals and policies,

including sustainability, climate, and

environment goals.

There are no formal requirements to

set local climate goals or do climate

action planning. Since the 1970’es

there have been a requirement to

adopt

municipal energy plans,

but

according to the National Energy

Authority the rules are considered

outdated and not enforced.

However,

recent changes to the Planning and

Building Act in 2022 has introduced

a more a strategic approach for the

Comprehensive Planning, which

is expected to also help underpin

municipal climate planning.

Voluntary

programs (similar to the Danish

DK2020) organize municipalities in

joint climate action planning initiatives,

like ‘Klimatkommunerna’ with 50

members and ‘Viable cities’ with 23

municipalities and five government

agencies.

There are also no formal requirements

to do

a local transport plan.

Only

30% of the Swedish road network is

municipal. Major new infrastructure

will often be included in the regional (or

the national) infrastructure plan, while

the regional Trafikförsörjningsprogram

take care of public transport (some of

both may have municipal co-funding).

Municipalities have nevertheless been

widely encouraged to adopt voluntary

‘traffic strategies’. Already in 2012, 30-

40 municipalities had adopted such

Energi- och klimatstrategi för Gävleborgs län 2020–2030

[in Swedish]

Municipal spatial plans are mandatory; Regional spatial plans are voluntary, except in three regions

Energimyndigheden [Swedish Energy Authority] (2011). Aktualisering av lagen om kommunal energiplanering. Energimyndighetens ståndpunkt i reger-

ingsuppdrag [in Swedish]

Energimyndigheten [Swedish Energy Authority] (2021)

Energi- och klimatomställning i kommun och region.

[in Swedish]

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strategies, following a general concept

of the so-called TRAST handbook.

The

city of Lund will be referred to as a

case in a following section.

4.5 National frameworks for

local transport decarbonisa-

tion

In its Climate Action Plan and

other policy documents Swedish

Government has stated that

cities

and municipalities will need to be

empowered and supported,

since they

are the key arenas for creating a more

‘transport effective society’, though

measures such as spatial planning,

parking regulations, provision for

carpools, infrastructure for active

and public transport, etc.

Various

government bodies have repeatedly

acknowledged that without stronger

local level planning it will be difficult

to curb car transport growth and reach

the climate targets in an effective way.

There are several mechanisms in

place to support local planning for

transport decarbonisation, although

hardly in the form of one integrated

framework.

Formal foundations

include laws like the Planning and

Building Act, Government policies

like the 4-year Climate Action Plans,

as well as prescriptions and budget

commitments for the National and

Regional Infrastructure Plans.

On top

of this there is a multitude of strategic

and practical guidance documents and

support initiatives as well as dedicated

funding for local ‘green’ transport,

mobility, or climate actions, anchored

in different government agencies and

bodies.

Several previously existing

programs and documents have in

recent years been reviewed to further

promote climate concerns, the 70%

reduction goal, and the aim for a ‘a

transport-efficient society’.

The national ‘Council for Sustainable

Cities’ maintains the website ‘Hallbara

Stad’

with a series of initiatives to

support municipalities’ sustainability

efforts including transport, while the

Swedish transport agency Trafikverket

operates the knowledge-sharing

‘Arena for a transport-efficient urban

environment’, and hosts an annual

‘green Lights 2030’ Conference

reporting nationwide local actions

and progress towards the 70%

reduction target for transport.

the financial side there are major

subsidy programs like ‘Klimatklivet’

offering government co-funding for to

a wide range of climate investments

for private public actors, including

regions and municipalities

, as well

as the ‘Stadsmiljöavtal’-program

targeting municipal transport action in

particular (described in the following

section).

It is noteworthy how much various

government and non-government

policies and guidance documents

cross-reference each other instigating

some degree of at least conceptual

In its Climate Action Plan

Swedish Government

has stated that cities and

municipalities will need

to be empowered and

supported.

Wendle, Björn; Dahlen Eric & Söderström, Liselott (2012). Effekter av trafikstrategier. Trafikverket, Energimyndigheten och Sveriges Kommuner och

Landsting, Stockholm

Regeringens Proposition 2019/20:65,

from p. 121 ff. [in Swedish]

8 Also, In 2018 the government adopted an indicative goals for urban transport that the share of public transport, cycling and walking should increase to

25 % by 2025 (from 20 % in 2010)

9 For example Boverket [Swedish Housing Agency] ’Översiktsplanering

för minskad klimatpåverkan’ [in Swedish]

For example the widely uses ’TRAST’ planning handbook has recently been replaced by: Sandberg, L & Wärnhjelm, M (2022)

Handbok för trafikstrate-

giskt arbete.

Tillgänglighet i ett hållbart samhälle.

https://bransch.trafikverket.se/om-oss/var-verksamhet/regeringsuppdrag-remisser-och-remissvar/Regeringsuppdrag/fossilfri-transportsektor--infor-

mation-och-kunskap/arena-transporteffektiv-stadsmiljo/

Riksrevisionen(2019)

Klimatklivet – stöd till lokala klimatinvesteringar, RIR 2019:1

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and rhetoric framing across national,

regional, and local planning efforts

in the area of transport planning for

climate mitigation in Sweden. For

example, few policy documents in the

area fail to refer to concepts like the

70% reduction target, the ‘transport

effective society’ or the ‘4-step

principle’, and associated guidance.

This does not necessarily mean that

planning and implementation is

fully aligned to deliver transport and

climate goals in practice, however. The

Gävleborg example above indicated

limited correspondence between

for example the 4-step principle, the

recent regional infrastructure plan,

and the regional climate strategy.

A study by Lund et al (2020)

reveals

that national goals are not necessarily

always penetrating the local traffic

strategies, and even when ambitious

local climate goals and strategies exist,

they are not necessarily delivered in

practice, often due to a lack of political

will. Goal conflicts are not always

addressed, making the contribution of

local plans to overall goal fulfillment

sometimes unclear.

4.6 Stadsmiljöavtal

The

‘Stadsmiljöavtal’

(Urban

Environment Agreements) is a large

subsidy program designed to support

local transport actions for a more

sustainable urban environment. The

program was initiated as a pilot in

2015 with inspiration from the related

Norwegian model, and from 2018

onwards it has been incorporated as an

element in the National Infrastructure

Plans. The program now distributes

around 1 billion SEK (100 M €) pr year

for municipalities and regions and

with the 2022-2033 plan it has been

extended to 2027. It is administered

by Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport

Agency.

Through program calls municipalities

and regions can apply for funding

for investments that support public

transport, cycling and urban freight,

including for example BRT projects,

cycle routes etc. Cycling was added

from 2017 and freight from 2019.

The measures should lead to energy-

efficient solutions with low emissions

of greenhouse gases and contribute

to achieving urban environmental

quality goals. The grants should

also particularly support innovative,

high-capacity and resource-efficient

solutions. The program does not cover

investments for car usage or parking,

nor operational costs, and cost for

planning efforts are also not eligible.

Up to 50% of investment costs can be

subsidized.

To obtain funding municipalities/

regions must also commit to ‘Services-

in-return’

, that is, additional

measures to be delivered by the

municipality and region over the

following several years. These

measures can cover a much wider

range of actions than the subsidized

investments, including for example

transit-oriented urban development

or housing plans, speed limiting, car

parking measures, cycling and PT

initiatives, mobility management,

broad traffic strategies, etc., if the

measures can be argued to support

the same goals of urban environment

and transport effectiveness as the

subsidized measures.

Applications for support must describe

costs and expected impacts in regard

to program objectives, including

changes in modal split in the affected

urban areas. There is no requirement

to asses GHG- emission impacts. The

application must include plans for

monitoring and evaluation of results.

As the program works through

applications and grants (and not

negotiated agreements as in the

Norwegian model) the government

cannot control the specific outcomes

in advance. However, through the

requirement for a comprehensive

approach and ‘Services-in-return’ the

government has a significant lever

to influence municipal planning and

promote its objectives for a ‘transport

effective’ urban society.

4.6.1 Results and impacts

Since 2015 132 grants have been

given, involving 390 measures and

nearly 900 services-in-return. 80

municipalities and regions have been

involved and around 8 billion SEK (ca

800 m €) have been granted

According to an evaluation of the

program’s first four application rounds

(the pilot period 2015-18) there is

great variation in the context, size,

and type of projects with the level of

Lund, E; Fredricsson, C; Hult, Å; Levin, K; Sanne, JM; Wennberg H (2020). Hur överförs nationella miljömål till lokala beslut i transport- och samhällsplaneringen? Forskningsprojektet Stafetten. Trivector

Rapport 2020:40 [in Swedish]

Johansson. H (2018). URBAN ENVIRONMENT AGREEMENTS IN SWEDEN. CIVITAS Conference, October 2018

Isaksson Elias & Knaggård Åsa (2019). Kunskapsöversikt: Stadsmiljöavtalets politiska process. K2 WORKING PAPER 2019:10; and Lidström, Anders & Hertting, Nils (2021). Limited, fragmented and power-

less: national urban policies in Sweden. In: A Modern Guide to National Urban Policies in Europe, Elgar Online 2021

Trafikverket webinar, Nov. 27, 2022

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subsidy ranging from 380,000 SEK (35

K €) to 280 M SEK (26 M €) - a factor

of nearly 800. Both large and small

municipalities have applied (although

by far the most has gone to larger

ones). Construction of cycle paths

was the most frequent investment

followed by various measures to

enhance public transport accessibility

and service.

By far the most frequent return service

was ‘Detailed Development Plans’ for

new housing areas, nearly 150 of those

were submitted, covering 50.000 new

dwellings, indicating that the program

supports the integration of urban and

transport planning. Comprehensive

urban traffic strategies were also

frequently submitted and the same

goes for walking and cycling projects.

Reported results indicate an overall

increase in passenger km with public

transport by 8.8%; with cycling by

6% and a decrease in car traffic km

by 5.5%. A total reduction in CO

emissions around 12,000 tons/year

is estimated. In the survey part of

the evaluation municipalities report

that the Stadsmiljöavtal grants have

enabled some new measures that

would otherwise not have occurred

or (more typically) only occurred later,

or in a smaller scale. Return services

would mostly have been adopted

anyway but sometimes much later

or downscaled. Respondents report

that working with the program has

increased political awareness on

transport and environment and

enhanced collaboration within and

across municipalities and regions.

However, according to the evaluators

it is uncertain to what extent

reported results can be relied upon

due to multiple data collection and

verification issues, and to other

potentially intervening factors. In

2021 The Swedish Transport Agency

declined to provide expected outcome

figures for the extended program due

to these uncertainties.

Nevertheless,

the program is widely considered

useful and fit-for-purpose.

inhabitant per year. Lund municipality

applied to the Stadsmiljöavtal

program in 2015 and has received

one of the largest grants for a 5.5 km

tramline between the central station

and theurban development district

Brunnshög. The tramline had an

investment budget of 746 MSEK (77 M

€) and the obtained subsidy was 298

M SEK (40%). The tram project was

delivered and started operations in

December 2020.

The committed return services are

extensive. They include a strategy for

urban densification along the line,

concentrated urban development in

the destination area of Brunnshög,

redesign of the central station

terminal, changes to speed limits and

parking norms, and various public

transport and cycling measures.

The project and the return services

are aligned with the municipal

Comprehensive Plan, the Region Skane

Trafikförsörjningsprogram,

and with

Lundamats,

Lund municipality’s long-

standing traffic strategy.

The tram project in Lund has a long

history behind it. The project was

4.7 Case – Lund

Lund is a leading city in sustainable

urban mobility planning and practice

in Sweden

. Zero growth in car traffic

is among the green goals and transport

-emission must drop by 2.5% per

17 Trafikverket 2021 Miljökonsekvensbeskrivning av förslag till nationell plan för transportinfrastrukturen 2022–2033. TRV 2021/79143, Borlänge, 2021

[in Swedish]

18 Scoring #1 now three times in a row (2018; 2019; 2020) in the informal annual Swedish Sustainable Mobility ranking

SHIFT

https://utveckling.skane.se/siteassets/publikationer_dokument/trafikforsorjningsprogram_for_skane_2015.pdf

2016 LundaMaTs – hallbarhetsstrategin_som_haller

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traffic or climate CO2-impacts of the

whole package.

4.8 Summary

Fig. 10 Image and map: Wikimedia. Av Jorchr - Eget arbete, CC BY-SA 3.0 Av

OpenStreetMap contributors - openstreetmap.org, CC BY 3.0,

https://commons.

wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96006208.

conceived several years before the

Stadsmiljöavtal program. It was

preceded by a bus line, which was

already envisaged and designed

with a view to a future tramline. The

preparation of the tram project was

in part supported by the European

Investment Bank. The EIB support

would be withdrawn if an investment

decision was not made sometime

around 2015

. Hence the program

did not

create

the project as much as

allow

it to materialize.

It is not yet possible to report actual

results from the project in Lund (trams

and committed services). An early

ex ante analysis found that the tram

project alone would not be profitable

in socio-economic terms. Interestingly,

this is not among the criteria for

Stadsmiljöavtal grants.

The Lund application

did not quantify

expected impacts. The project and

committed services were altogether

extensive, long term and therefore

not completed at the time of the K2

evaluation. A recent report from Lund

municipality in 2021 estimated a

modest ex post reduction of around

410,000 car trips and 51 tons of CO2

per year for the tram alone. We did

not identify any attempt to assess the

Sweden has ambitious

climate goals

including a steep reduction target

of 70% 2010-2030 for the transport

sector. Among the officially adopted

strategies is the promotion of a

‘transport effective society’ targeting

national and not least regional and

local planning. However, what this

strategy entails in practice and policy,

for example to what extent it involves

direct reductions in car traffic, is not

universally agreed.

Many public agencies, committees etc.

are engaged in providing conceptual

and procedural framing for discourse

on transport decarbonisation efforts

at the local level, but a central driving

actor has been called for. According to

the Swedish Climate Policy Council and

other observers, climate goals are still

inadequately integrated in sectors and

policies, and the strategy to reduce

emissions through the

‘transport-

efficiency’

lacks an institutional home.

A key area is

infrastructure planning

which is formalized at both national

and regional level. While infrastructure

planning is now formally subscribed to

climate goals and the 4-step principle,

the plans are still locked into massive

spending for infrastructure, and not

yet adapted to cater to accessibility

planning

and

‘rethink/avoid’

strategies.

There are no formal requirements for

local municipalities

to adopt either

climate action plans, or local transport

plans, and among the many ideas for

governance reforms we did not come

across any proposal to make such

plans mandatory.

Instead, government, agencies and

others seem to have preference

for conceptual and methodological

guidance and financial incentives

to support municipal planning and

action within and across transport

and climate. The large scale

‘Stadsmiljöavtal’ program has engaged

many municipalities in providing

for non-car transport investments.

It supports a somewhat holistic

approach though the requirements

for return services that connect spatial

planning with traffic strategies, green

infrastructure, and mobility measures.

Lund Municipality: Application form for Stadsmiljöavtal 2015

Isaksson E & Knaggård Å (2019). Kunskapsöversikt: Stadsmiljöavtalets politiska process. K2 WORKING PAPER 2019:10 [in Swedish]

Hammes, J.J. (2021). Steering cities towards a sustainable transport system in Norway and Sweden. Case Studies on Transport Policy 9 (2021) 241–252.

Lund Municipality: Application form for Stadsmiljöavtal 2015

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A city like Lund has used the program

help

realize

long-standing

ambitions to upgrade the local public

transport system and supporting this

with measures across the avoid-shift-

improve palette. However, it is not

possible to document that this kind

of program has yet delivered really

significant reversal of transport trends

or substantial GHG-reductions in a

cost-effective way.

The

regional level

has a key role not

least as potential coordinators of

transport and climate planning across

municipalities and the state. We did

not review in detail the resources

or mandates available for regions

in this regard, and we did not come

across examples of particularly strong

or radical measures, or entirely

novel integrated approaches, being

promoted through regional level

action at this point.

The current situation points to windows

of opportunity for strengthening

the governance of local transport

decarbonisation in various ways.

Opportunities include for example the

preparation of the next Climate Action

Plan 2023, proposed revisions to the

Planning Act,

stronger mandates on

climate goals, decarbonisation, and

‘transport-efficiency’ for transport

infrastructure planning, as proposed

by the Climate Policy Council

and others, and also the possible

installment of new coordinating

bodies and procedures for large scale

urban transport agreements, akin to

the Norwegian system, as proposed

by the Climate Law Inquiry

and the

Government’s own Transport Analysis

Agency

The recent and significant shift in

strategy away from strong reliance on

biofuels will have huge implications

for what is expected of behaviour

change and electrification at a local

scale. This underlines the importance

of good national and local dialogue

if consistent policies are to be

developed.

As proposed by another public committee, SOU 2021:23 Stärkt planering för en hållbar utvek-

cling. Betänkande av utredningen Samordning för bostadsbyggande, Stockholm 2021 [in Swedish]

Slutbetänkande av Klimaträttsutredningen, SOU 2022:21, Stockholm 2022 (English Summary, p.

55)

27 Trafikanalys (2022). Förslag som leder till transportsektorns klimatomställning [in Swedish]

Rapport: 2022:14

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5 Denmark

5.1 Denmark’s Climate Policy

The Climate Act of 2019 defines

Denmark’s legally committed climate

goals and provides the general climate

policy framework. The goals of the

Act include a target of 70% GHG

reduction (1990-2030) and net-zero

before 2050. The Act establishes that

Denmark must be a global frontrunner.

Yet, fulfillment of targets must also

take into account cost-effectiveness,

international competitiveness and

employment.

The new majority government in

power from December 2022 has

committed to net-zero already by

2045 and 110% reduction by 2050,

goals that are not yet legally bound.

The Climate Act reinforced the role of

the independent Council on Climate

Change and installed an annual

climate

policy cycle

that is new to Denmark.

In February the Council on Climate

Change submits its annual review

of current government climate

policies. The Council must comment

if the government has ‘convincingly

demonstrated’ that the targets defined

in the Climate Act will be met. If not,

the Act prescribes an ‘Obligation to

Act’ for the government.

In September the Government must

present its annual Climate Action Plan

(‘Klimaprogram’). In the Action Plan

the Government must include further

actions if the February verdict of the

Climate Council was ‘not convincingly

demonstrated’.

That has been the verdict every year

since 2021. Towards the end of the

year, Parliament will debate to what

extent it finds that the ‘Obligation to

Act’ has been fulfilled through the

Action Plan. It may decide to include

additional policies as part of agreeing

next year’s National Budget.

February

recomendations

by The Danish Council

on Climate Change

December

Interpellation

debate

Annual Cycle

Climate Act

April Climate

Inventory and

projections

National budget

process

September

Annual Climate Action

Plans

5.2 Transport Decarbonisa-

tion policy

5.2.1 The Climate Action Plan

and

the

Transport

Roadmap

Domestic transport emitted 12.4 mio.

ton CO2e in 2020, corresponding to

28% of total national emissions. This

represents an increase in transport

emissions of 6% over 1990.

Fig: 11. The Danish Climate policy cycle.

1 Danish Energy Agency (2022). Klimastatus og -fremskrivning 2022 [in Danish]

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Denmark does not have a separate

decarbonisation goal or strategy

for the transport sector, but the

Government’s

annual

Climate

Action Plans include sections on

major intervention areas, including

transport.

Besides

summarizing

adopted policies and their expected

impact each intervention sector

comes with a ‘Roadmap’ of initiatives

the government is considering for

steering towards overall climate goals.

Transport emissions ‘peaked’ around

2007, and are projected to decline

further towards 2030 and beyond

as a result of technology and market

trends, and European and national

policies, according to the most recent

Action Plan from 2022 (fig. 12).

Adopted national policies focus mostly

on the technical transition towards

electric and other alternative fuels and

vehicles. The effect is hampered by

significant projected growth in vehicle

fleet and traffic volume (+15% 2020-

30 for passenger cars), combined with

slow fleet turnover.

Hence, transport emissions with

adopted policies are currently set to

decline by only

13% between 1990

and 2030,

compared to the overall

Mio. tons CO2e/year

goal of 70% for all sectors combined.

The Transport Roadmap describes

additional

planned

government

initiatives the next few years in various

stages of preparation, from pending

policy proposals to possible additional

measures, to analysis of technical

reduction potentials. No commitment

for further reduction of transport

emissions is specified.

In its 2022 annual review the Climate

Council advised Government to adopt

additional measures to reach the

national goals for 2030 and 2050, or risk

becoming dependent on risky levels of

negative emissions.

Also in 2022 the

EU adopted stricter national targets in

the Effort Sharing Mechanism. Most

recently the new Danish government

moved the Net-Zero goal up to 2045.

Hence, pressure for action in transport

will likely increase.

Yet, it is not clear how much more

the sector must deliver or by when,

considering cost-effectiveness vis á

vis other sectors and the potential

for negative emissions. There is

currently no clear trajectory towards

a decarbonized transport sector in

Denmark.

Transport GHG emissions in Denmark

1990

Road

Rail

2020

Domestic shipping

2025

Domestic air

Other transport

2030

Fig. 12. Domestic transport sector emissions in Denmark in mio. tons CO

e (Source:

KIimaprogram 2022

). Light green bars are road transport (92%).

5.3 Horizontal coordination of

transport decarbonisation

of Church Affairs (to some surprise for

observers).

As ‘Avoid’ measures are not much

applied in current climate policy, the

Agency’s involvement in transport

decarbonisation is limited. ‘Shift’

measures, including provisions for

public transport, cycling, walking,

car sharing etc. refer to laws and

regulations anchored in the Ministry

of Transport and its agencies, while

parts of local implementation will

involve municipalities and regions

Mandates and resources available to

promote transport decarbonisation

is spread over a range of ministries,

agencies, and authorities.

‘Avoid’ measures through spatial

planning is mostly the business of each

municipality (see section 5.4). The

national regulation or spatial planning

has been shifted much around but is

now placed in the Agency for Planning

and Rural Districts under the Ministry

Danish Council on Climate Change (2022). ‘Statusrapport 2022. Danmarks nationale klimamål og internationale forpligtelser’ [in Danish]

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owing/managing local roads and

transport agencies. ‘Shift’ is also

often a topic in national infrastructure

policy described in the next section.

‘Improve’ actions related to emissions

from vehicles and fuels are shared

between Ministry of Transport,

Ministry of Environment (e.g., low

and zero emission zones) Ministry

of Taxation, and Ministry of Climate,

Energy and Utilities.

In principle it all comes together

through the annual Climate Policy

Cycle described in section 5.1 and

condensed in the annual Climate

Actions Plan with its ‘Roadmaps’,

in a whole of-government process

orchestrated by the Ministry of

Climate, Energy and Utilities, in

coordination with other departments

as necessary.

Over time specific responsibilities

have shifted around, but in general

it is the same set of Ministries and

agencies that have been engaged

in this area since the very first

national interagency action plans for

transport, environment and climate

were delivered in the 1990, with the

Council of Climate Change as the main

recent institutional addition since

then. In its annual Reviews and other

reports, the Council regularly analyses

short and long term challenges and

recommend climate actions for key

sectors including transport. However,

as already noted there is not today

an explicit government strategy or

separate institutionalized process for

transport decarbonisation.

5.3.1 Infrastructure planning and

climate policy

National transport and infrastructure

policy in Denmark follows a

discretionary

political

scheme

that is not formally constrained by

climate or other objectives. The main

components of transport policy are

defined via political agreements among

majority coalitions in Parliament.

The

government (often a minority) will set

forth a proposition. The proposition

will be negotiated, and the results

fleshed out in the agreement.

Two times over the last 20 years a

major proposition to cover future

national infrastructure investments

has been put forward. A key discussion

point is always the ‘balance’ between

road and rail investments, now also

By volume 95% of road

infrastructure in Denmark

is municipally owned and

managed.

with a reference to climate concerns.

The latest such proposition from

2021 led to the agreement called

‘Infrastructure

Plan 2035’.

Several

other transport agreements have been

settled in recent years covering topics

like public transport, green taxation

measures, charging infrastructure, etc.

Following political agreement, key

elements are codified in a legal Act and

included in the national budget. Before

legal adoption, an appraisal process is

conducted, usually including CBA and

Environmental Impact Assessment

of each project. GHG emissions have

become part of those appraisals,

both in the CBA (via a shadow price)

and in the EIA (as X tons emitted

from construction, changes in traffic

volume etc.).

However, since projects are sometimes

traded into political agreements

even

before

any appraisal is conducted,

the assessment can become a mere

formality. In other situations, appraisal

results are prepared in advance of

agreement and appraisal results will

inform and may influence negotiations

and priorities.

Yet, since there is no transport

sector climate target or other formal

benchmark, there is wide political

discretion in how to interpret climate

concerns and GHG calculations and

how they weigh into infrastructure

and transport policy decisions.

5.3.2 National and local infrastructure

By volume 95% of road infrastructure

in Denmark is municipally owned and

managed while only 5% is national/

trunk. Yet national motorways alone

have 1/3 of total traffic (Danish

Road

Directorate 2022).

For rail by far most of the network and

service is state-owned. Anyway, as

nationally funded projects often have

strong local significance and impact,

the Parliamentary negotiation process

attracts much local and regional

attention. National co-funding is also

”As a rule, legislation passed in the Danish Parliament pertaining to a sphere within the Transport Committee’s remit is based on a political compromise.”

Danish Parliament: The Transport Committee

[undated, accessed 10.01.2023]

https://www.trm.dk/politiske-aftaler/2021/aftale-om-infrastrukturplan-2035-aftale

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regularly provided directly for the

local/regional levels, either for specific

local projects, like light rail or urban

arteries, or through pools of support

money.

The 2021 plan for example included

three major projects that the

government expects the relevant

municipalities to co-fund, as well

as several pools for areas like traffic

safety, bicycle paths and EV-charging.

Hence, what is ‘national’ interest

and what is ‘local’ interest is not

necessarily defined clearly in advance.

Local and regional policymakers will

often seek to influence the national

policy process, just like national

policy makers may seek to benefit

constituencies in the trading in and

out of projects and funding.

Overall, Denmark does not have a

formalized system for joining-up

national and local transport policies

corresponding to for example the

Norwegian

‘Byvekstavtaler’

the Swedish Regional Transport

Infrastructure Plans. Again, it is

predominantly a topic for political

agreement.

5.4 Role of regional and local

planning authorities

5.4.1 Regional

Denmark is divided into five regions.

The main tasks are health care/

hospitals, regional public transport,

and strategic development planning.

Regions have limited roles and do not

own or manage roads.

By Law, Denmark has six

Public

Transport Authorities,

partly matching

the five regions. PTA’s are jointly owned

by the regions and municipalities

located in their service areas. Bus

and local rail services are delivered

by private operators via multi-annual

contracts with PTA’s (competition for

the market).

Some of the five regions have adopted

voluntary transport or infrastructure

strategies or plans.

These can be

understood as platforms for political

coordination across municipal borders

in the region. All five regions have also

engaged in climate action planning,

not least by assuming supporting roles

in the DK-2020 project (see section

3.4.4.)

Examples include

Infrastrukturstrategi Fyn 2017-35,

and ‘Trafik-

og Mobilitetsplan for Hoved-

stadsregionen 2019’ [in Danish]

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The largest region population-wise

is The Capital Region with 1.8 mio.

inhabitants including Copenhagen and

28 other municipalities. For this region

a special National Planning Directive

is in place. The directive instructs

municipalities to plan according to

principles of the original ‘Fingerplan’

of 1947 with later modifications. Key

aims are to ensure that new housing,

offices, retail etc. is located near

exiting transport infrastructure, and

keeping green ‘wedge’ areas free from

development.

5.4.2 Municipal

There are 98 municipalities in Denmark.

According to the

OECD/EU definition

only four of them include ‘cities’

proper. The main one is the ‘Large

Metropolitan Area’ of Copenhagen.

It has 664.000 inhabitants in the City

of Copenhagen, and 1.8 mio. In the

entire Capital Region. The next tier city

municipalities after Copenhagen are

Aarhus (355.000), Odense (206.000)

and Aalborg (221.000).

Municipalities have formal self-rule

and a substantial own tax base to fund

local infrastructure, etc. Danes pay

on average around 25% of income in

local tax (SKM

2022).

Municipalities

also receive national tax block

grants according to a complex

formula (around 25% of their total

expenditures).

Despite formal self-rule, central

government retains overall control

over the municipal economy. Main

instruments for this include an annually

negotiated ‘investment ceiling’ and an

annual ‘budget limit’, for the combined

spending of all municipalities (not

each one individually). The limits are

settled in annual agreements between

central government and KL – Local

Government Denmark, their umbrella

organization. The general rule is that

new obligations for municipalities

must be balanced with economic

compensation from the state.

5.4.3 Municipal planning

The Danish Planning Act requires

all municipalities to have a

‘Kommuneplan’,

a Municipal Plan,

which is a comprehensive land use and

strategic development plan for the

next 12 years, updated or confirmed

every 4 years. The Municipal Plan

defines the spatial structure and

strategic goals of the municipality. It

must incorporate planned national

infrastructure. The plan sets binding

parameters for district level planning

(‘local plans’) and development

projects. The Municipal Plan must be

coordinated with ‘sector plans’ for

heating, waste, sewage etc. which are

key municipal responsibilities.

Municipalities

decide

transport

investments and regulations

in line

with the ‘Municipal Plan’. There is

no requirement to adopt a separate

‘sector plan’ for transport. Several

municipalities have nevertheless at

some point adopted comprehensive

transport or mobility plans on a

voluntary basis (see Odense case later

in this Chapter).

There is also currently no requirement

for

municipal climate planning

(apart from some climate adaptation

measures). Here the situation is

special however, as nearly all (95 of

98) municipalities have entered the

DK-2020 project and committed to

voluntarily adopt comprehensive

climate action plans. Due to the

significance of the DK2020 project

its key features are outlined in the

following section.

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5.4.4 DK-2020 Project

The DK2020 project is a partnership

between the major Danish charitable

association Realdania, KL – Local

Government Denmark, and the five

Regions. CONCITO is secretariat and

knowledge partner for the project

in collaboration with C40 Cities,

the global climate association for

megacities.

Following a pilot round in 2019-2021

with 20 municipalities, all Danish

municipalities have since been invited

to apply to join the project in two

subsequent rounds. All municipalities

but three have joined.

The entry

point is a pledge to develop a Climate

Action Plan for climate neutrality

covering emission scopes 1+2, a plan

for climate robustness and adaptation.

In the pledge the Mayor/City Council

must commit to net zero emissions by

2050 at the latest. The commitment

includes,

•

developing a Climate Action Plan

with ambitious intermediate

targets (for example 2030),

•

addressing mitigation in all

important sectors,

•

integrating

mitigation

adaptation measures,

and

•

including local actors in the

process for added value and just

transition.

The politically adopted final plans are

submitted to CONCITO and C40 Cities

for review and approval. As per early

2023 nearly 60 DK-2020 plans are

approved; all the rest are due within

2023.

Some important features should be

highlighted,

•

The effort is voluntary with

only limited external support to

develop the required plans.

•

Participating

municipalities

must apply the same planning

concept, an adapted version

of the Climate Planning Action

(CAP) Framework by C40 Cities.

Municipalities thereby share

features like end goals, scopes,

and documentation, while free to

select their own interim targets

and priorities. This ensures a

degree of comparability and

mutual learning across.

2020

20 pilot municipalities

completed CAPs

2022

44 municipalities

completed CAPs

2023

Last 31 municipalities

will complete CAPs

Billedtekst. Figure 13: Danish municipalities committing to prepare and adopt

Climate Actions Plans (CAPs), aligned with Paris Agreement objectives.

Copenhagen did not join since they are Denmark’s only C40 city with an already developed and

C40-approved plan. Two other minor municipalities could not fit the project into their strategy or

budget.

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•

Emission baselines and plans can

draw from an already existing

national GHG inventory for each

municipality, hosted by the

Danish Energy Agency. Not all

municipalities use this inventory,

but it does further support

consistency and comparability,

•

Municipalities have committed

to monitor, regularly review, and

update their plans after adoption

and approval, and to collaborate

on implementation even after

the end of the DK2020 project.

•

Practically all municipalities

target transport as a key sector

for intervention,

and most are

planning for several transport

mitigation actions.

For those reasons the project

has likely created a momentum

for local transport decarbonisati-

on efforts over the coming years.

government initiatives.

In the

following we briefly summarize our

observations of how local action is

reflected in key national policy areas

before describing two alignment

mechanisms, the

national funding

pools

for local green transport and

the ‘Klimasamarbejdsaftaler’(Climate

Collaborative Agreements).

•

The Danish

Climate Act

does

not address local climate action.

The most recent

Climate Action

Plan

and Roadmap of 2022 lists

some climate measures for the

local level agreed in Parliament

(like the ones described in the

following two sections) but puts

little emphasis on collaborative

frameworks or partnerships

with local authorities. The

Ministry of Climate, Energy

and Utilities

who is responsible

for national Climate Action

planning manages legislation

and individual support programs

relevant for local energy

planning, and low carbon

transport, but it does not have

single office or unit dedicated to

local government/local climate

action.

government/local

climate action.

•

The

Ministry of Transport

responsible for a broad range

of the legislation, investments,

policies, and pools that in various

ways can enable (or constrain)

local transport decarbonisation

efforts. These include policy

levers like traffic regulations,

speed limits, road design rules,

public transport service, support

for EV charging infrastructure,

green ferries, and more. The

Infrastructure Plan 2035 has

established some provisions

for the local level, including

selected local road and rail

projects with state/local funding

and several support pools (see

the following sections). There is

no (published) strategy for how

these various levers could jointly

support local decarbonisation,

and there is no single office or

unit dedicated to local transport

decarbonisation or integrated/

sustainable mobility planning.

•

Spatial Planning

has been

shifted among ministries and

agencies and has most recently

been placed with the Ministry

of Church Affairs. The Planning

Act promotes comprehensive

planning for growth and

sustainability but does not (yet)

refer to climate mitigation as

a goal. The Planning Agency

has responsibility for rules on

the deployment of EV charging

for new and existing building,

whereas the agency provides

limited guidance on planning

for transport, infrastructure

etc. A recent partnership

initiative ‘Plan 22+’ will provide

knowledge and tools for climate

oriented spatial planning. An

integrated planning approach

for transport decarbonisation

does not (yet) transpire.

While we see little evidence so far of

a whole-of-government approach to

local transport decarbonisation within

or across agencies, it is noteworthy that

the new Government taking office in

December 2022 has announced a new

initiative called ‘Together

for climate’

suggesting a partnership between

central and local government,

business, and civil society. It has also

set forth to establish a National Energy

Crisis Unit (NEKST) with inspiration

from the national COVID-19 strategy.

Few details about these initiatives

have been released so far, and there

is no mention if transport will be

considered in any of them.

5.5.1 Funding

transport

pools

for

green

5.5 National framework for lo-

cal transport decarbonisation

It has not been possible to identify

any nationally anchored framework

comprehensively

promote

transport decarbonisation

at the

local level.

What emerges from

reviewing current practice is a series

of more or less disjoint enabling

Danish Government has a tradition for

pursuing policies via the allocation of

funding pools for various purposes,

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including local planning, transport, and

urban environment. An early example

was the ’Traffic and environment pool’

in operation 1992-1995.

A key aim was to incentivize

municipalities to adopt integrated

sustainable urban mobility plans,

setting targets for reduced energy

consumption, air pollution, and four

other environmental parameters.

Several pools have since been

established with regional or municipal

authorities as the intended applicants.

2009 was the beginning of the

annual co-funding pool for local cycle

projects. Oher pots have focused on

enhancements to public transport

services, and more recently support

for green energy infrastructure and

vehicles has been targeted, although

most are for private actors in the

business and housing sectors.

Funding pools have been promoted as

part of recent major policy agreements

in Parliament on Climate Action and

the Transport Infrastructure 2035

package in 2021. Here they are

intended to support strategic elements

in those policies like the promotion

of low-emission means of transport

or local alternatives to the car. For

example the pool for green buses and

service transport is an accompanying

measure to the Climate Collaborative

Agreements with regions described

in the following section. It should be

noted however, that the Infrastructure

Plan also contains other, much larger

pools for more conventional road and

rail infrastructure.

The administration of pools for green

transport are spread over at least four

different agencies. Some are one-

off and other are recurring over two

of more years. Table 2 shows recent

pools in this area intended for local

authorities. Some have transport

decarbonisation as a direct purpose,

others more indirect.

The pools are generally popular as

the budgets are regularly spent.

Applications for pool funding need

to fulfill certain eligibility and quality

criteria, but none of the recent

municipal targeted pools have been

conditioned on the existence of a

comprehensive mobility plan or a

climate action plan, in contrast to the

funding model of the historic ‘Traffic

and Environment pool’.

There is not a general agreement

about the effectiveness of Danish

funding pools for delivering the desired

results or transforming transport. The

evaluation of the formerly mentioned

Traffic pool was mixed.

Like the more recent review of the

Swedish ‘Trafikmiljöavtal’ (see chapter

4) the Danish pool was deemed to have

raised awareness and competence

to plan for greener transport locally,

whereas measurable environmental

results were less well documented.

The Danish Road agency in its

evaluation of the first five years (2009-

14) of the Cycle pool for municipalities

reported an increase of 22% of cycling

on project supported sections, while

only 3% of added bicyclists were found

to be former car drivers.

A recent critique of the cycling project

pool from experts has been that it

seems more focused on a balanced

geographical distribution of projects

than their effectiveness to enhance

cycling (Rich

2022,

In Danish). The

new Cycling Knowledge center of

the Road Directorate is currently

reconsidering the scoping of the pool

for the next three-year period. Other

critiques of the Danish pool funding

system include that temporary pools

are cumbersome to work with, tend to

produce excessive projects, and may

induce stop/go policy.

5.5.2 Climate Collaborative

Agreements

Since 2020 the Ministry of Transport

has entered 34 individual Climate

Collaborative

Agreements

with

regions and municipalities. The

initiative has come about as a soft way

to implement parts of the European

Clean Vehicles Directive.

The key element of each agreement

is a commitment by the municipality/

region to specific target dates for

shifting to zero emission public bus

fleets and municipally owned vehicles.

The dates differ across geographies

depending on route networks and

existing contracting periods with bus

operators, but several commit to zero

emission busses already from 2021

onwards in all new urban bus tenders.

By 2030 all busses will be zero emission.

Each agreement includes additional

commitments that are specific for the

individual region or city. For example,

for other public transport provisions,

or other clean vehicles.

Flyvbjerg, B, et al.(1998). ’Evaluering af Trafik- og Miljøpuljen 1992-1995’.

(English

Summary)

Danish Road Directorate (2019)

’Evaluering af cykelpuljen 2009-14’

[in Danish]

Clean Vehicles Directive

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Topic

Green buses and service

transport

Green inland ferries

EV charging on municipal

lands

Bus accessibility

Cycle projects

Shared EV-cars

Target

Regions

Municipalities

Municipalities and regions

Municipalities and

Research bodies

Municipalities and

Research bodies

Possibly including

municipalities

Period

2022-26 (5 years)

2021

2022-23

2022 -23

2022

2023-2025

2023-24 (exp)

Funding

250 MDKK

(34 M €)

233 MDKK

(31 M €)

98 MDKK

(13 M€)

100 MDKK

(13.5 M€)

200 MDKK

(27 M€)

353 MDKK

(47.5 M€)

100 MDKK

(13.5 M€)

Main purpose

Decarbonisation

Public transport service

More and/or safer

cycling (overall)

More and/or safer

cycling (targeted)

Decarbonisation and

environment

commitments could gradually be

extended to other types of local

transport and mobility measures.

No updated strategy for the program

has however been published and it

remains limited in scope and finance

for example compared to programs

like Norway’s ‘Byvekstavtal’ and

Sweden’s ‘Stadsmiljöavtal’.

5.6 Case - Odense Mobility

Plan

Odense, Denmark’s fourth largest

city (206.000 inhabitants) has a

strong commitment to urban mobility

planning with a priority for public and

active transport. The City Council has

recently adopted a DK2020 Climate

Action Plan to deliver net zero

emissions by 2030. A key element

in the plan will be a comprehensive

mobility plan that must contribute a

reduction of transport emissions of

107.000 tons CO2 compared to BAU in

2030. To reach this goal fossil fuel car

km’s driven must be reduced by 55%

in 2030.

Odense has a legacy of ‘green’ mobility

actions to build on. From 1999-2002 it

was the official National Cycle City with

initiatives that raised cycling by 20%.

The first Mobility Plan was adopted

Table 2. Green transport pools for local authorities. Sources: Political agreements and Agency websites.

Agreements entered so far cover 2/3

of all public busses and will reduce

emissions by an expected 76,000 mio.

tons CO2 in 2030, according to the

DoT, corresponding to 0.7% of total

expected transport emissions.

The Agreements also include

commitments from the Ministry of

Transport to explore options for more

local leverage. Among them are,

•

providing legal authority for

municipalities to financially

support EV charging and other

infrastructure for low emission

vehicles (since delivered)

•

a permanent low tax rate for

electricity for e-bus fleets

(since delivered)

•

reconsidering the ‘veto’ role of

the police in the design of local

road projects (rejected)

•

providing legal authority for

zero emission zones (pending)

The agreements are also backed by a

financial support pool for regional low

emission bus procurement.

The Climate Collaborative Agreement

model is a novel instrument in Danish

local-central transport governance.

It was originally (2020) stipulated

that the program should extend to

all municipalities and regions, while

Danish Ministry of Transport (2020). Klimasamarbejdsaftaler grøn kollektiv trafik (udmøntning af FL20) [in Danish]

6 Odense kommune (2022): Klimahandleplan 2023. [in Danish].

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in 2008 and included the complete

closure of a large throughfare in the

city center. In 2014 it was agreed

to build a light rail line co-funded

between municipal, regional, and

national government. Significant

urban development is concentrated

along the light rail corridor. The

line was estimated to reduce car

traffic in the city with 1%.

The latest

comprehensive urban space and

mobility plan from 2017 emphasized

mobility behavior and the utilization

of existing infrastructure, following

the Swedish 4-step principles.

In 2020 the city entered a Climate

Cooperative Agreement (see previous

section) committing to having all

buses be zero emission from next

bus tender in 2027, plus measures

like zero emission municipal vehicles

and low emission transport in public

procurement.

In 2021 an independent Task Force

commissioned by the municipality

delivered ten recommendations to

obtain a climate neutral Odense by

2030

Two of the recommendations were for

transport: A new traffic and mobility

plan with priority to active and shared

transport; and the introduction of zero

emissions zones.

According to preliminary estimates

speed reduction from 50 to 30

km/h within the whole Ring 3 zone

area could deliver nearly half of

the targeted reduction in transport

emissions mainly by deterring car-

based trips. The municipality has so

far only decided to test a reduction to

40 km/h within the much smaller Ring

1 area. In Denmark the police often

opposes proposals to lower local

speed limits, a mandate that Danish

local authorities have challenged on

several occasions.

For the Zero Emission Zone the

Odense Task Force estimated a

potential to contribute to a reduction

of around 92.000 tons CO

by 2030 if

covering all of the Ring 2 area. At this

point government has yet to provide

legislation needed to allow Zero

Emission Zones, and the municipality

will need to decide if this instrument

is to be deployed, considering still

unknown conditions.

Odense, Illuminated bicycle bridge. Photo: Odense Municipality.

5.7 Summary

Denmark is so far relying mostly on

‘improve’ measures in its climate

policy for transport, aiming to

shift vehicles and fuels to low -and

zero carbon technologies (mostly

electrification). There is not a separate

strategy for transport decarbonisation

nor a trajectory towards zero. A debate

can be seen emerging in society on the

need for

a national mobility strategy,

which should also deliver climate

objectives, but so far such a concept is

not clearly reflected in official policy.

While infrastructure planning is no

longer ignoring the climate agenda,

7 COWI (2013) Odense Letbane. VVM og miljøvurdering. [in Danish]

8 Klimasamarbejdsaftale om grøn kollektiv trafik mellem regeringen og Odense Kommune, June 2020. [in Danish]

Task Force Klimaneutral 2030

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the processes of Climate Action

Planning and Infrastructure decision

making are still quite separate, in both

policy and institutional terms.

Also, Denmark does not have a

formal model for joining-up national

infrastructure policies with local

transport planning, corresponding

to for example the Norwegian

‘Byvekstavtaler’ or the Swedish

Regional Transport Infrastructure

Plans. Nor did we identify a systematic

framework to promote local transport

decarbonisation. What emerges

from reviewing current practice is

like a series of more or less separate

enabling initiatives, including co-

financed infrastructure projects,

individual funding pools, and

narrow alignment programs like the

Climate Collaborative Agreements.

That municipalities like Odense are

preparing ambitious mobility plans to

deliver significant carbon reduction

is not officially acknowledged or

particularly encouraged from the

central level.

There is formal coordination across

levels where obligations are involved

in seperate intervention areas like

EV charging, or when EU regulation

requires it, whereas coordination

is entirely informal if not intangible

in regard to the broader transport

decarbonisation agenda. A preferred

mechanism is the financial support

tool, although it is not clear that these

programs work effectively towards

empowering municipalities to develop

transformative planning or find the

measures where they can contribute

most effectively. It is interesting to

note how local authorities jointly or

individually are pushing for shifting

some authority their way, for example

with regard to local engagement in EV-

deployment, Zero Emission Zones, and

speed limits. Central government is

responding, but it is not clear if a more

strategic dialogue on the balance and

alignment of authorities is emerging

anytime soon.

It is likely that municipalities will ask

for more leverage and government

support not least in the transport

area if they are to implement their

DK-2020 plans and reach their climate

targets, some of which stipulate

climate neutrality already by 2030 or

earlier. The local proactive approach

seems currently not well aligned

with the more reactive modus at the

national level.

Fig. 14 Traffic ring areas of Odense adapted from:

Task Force Klimaneutral 2030.

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6 Discussion

There are both major similarities

and differences among countries,

in terms of the general transport

decarbonisation strategies, as well

as in terms of how national and local

action is aligned. Even within each

country a mix of different approaches

and coordination mechanisms are

in operation. Yet, despite historically

dissimilar governance arrangements

especially between the Great Britain

and the two Scandinavian nations

it still seems meaningful to discuss

needs and models for alignment

across contexts.

As for the overarching climate policy

frameworks the three countries are

broadly similar, with Sweden and

Denmark somewhat assuming the

British harbinger model. A legal

Act mandates government to steer

towards reduced emissions (targets

or budgets) based on international

agreements and ultimately pointing

to a net-zero situation around mid-

century. Government is required to

report progress and propose policies

to Parliament.

An independent Climate Policy

Committee has important roles that

vary across the three countries with the

UK Council’s proactive role to suggest

5-years budgets to Government

standing out. In all countries the

Councils offer extensive commenting

and critique of government policy

and action. Ambitions and priorities

of national climate policy evolve over

time and with changes in government,

but it is clear that climate policy has

become institutionalized and is central

to national policy making.

As for transport, the sector contributes

around 30% of total GHG emissions

and therefore takes up prominent roles

in overall decarbonisation policy in all

three countries. The transport focus

has a sharper edge in Sweden with its

steep 70% reduction target by 2030

for the domestic transport sector, and

the UK with its separately formulated

strategy for decarbonizing transport,

whereas in Denmark transport action

forms a more indirect than strategic

component of overall national climate

policy.

Perhaps partly for this reason, and

partly because of differences in

specific policies (i.e., in Great Britain

the broad six-pronged strategy and

in Sweden the related three-pronged

one, plus the extreme biofuel blending

policy) the future trajectory towards

zero emission transport also appears

to be more vaguely outlined in the

Danish case at this point.

However, in all three cases a need

for further action beyond (or before)

the technical replacement of vehicle

fleets and energy sources can be

foreseen, even if less recognized in

Denmark, and in Sweden not yet fully

reconsidered after the sharp turn

away from the fuel blending-strategy

in government policy.

Ministries are working together and

coordinating policies as needed due

to the multidimensional driving forces

behind transport GHG emissions

and the complementing fields of

jurisdiction over regulatory and other

instruments.

The dividing lines between which

Ministry is responsible for which

actions are different, to some degree,

across our case study countries.

However, co-ordination concerns

remain important whether there is a

separate transport decarbonisation

strategy or one which is embedded in

other policies.

There are no cases where all of the

production emissions associated

with new vehicles and infrastructure

or where the relationship between

transport and the energy system are

treated in a single agency alongside

considering emissions from vehicles

in-use.

Again, here, coordination across

agencies is critical to coherent

strategies. Yet, the situation in

Great Britain with the Ministry for

Transport having the clear lead in

decarbonisation may be contrasted

with Denmark where other ministries

contribute to climate plans by request

from the Ministry for Climate, Energy

and Utilities, and Sweden, which

entertains an extensive discourse

exactly about the apparent lack of

central agency for decarbonizing

transport and delivering the ‘transport-

efficient society’.

The more the climate debate moves

into the domain of transport demand –

its role, its management, its planning,

its possible reconfiguration, the more

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