As the European Union has made a commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2050, member states are having to accelerate plans to modify the way people, goods and services are sourced, produced, transported and consumed, to significantly reduce the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Portugal has already made public its road map for net zero in 2050, and the bulk of the efforts are front loaded in the few years remaining to 2030. A significant part of the effort has to be made in transportation, which accounted for about 28% of emissions in 2019, of which 95% are caused by road transportation. In order to achieve the target for the sector of 40% emissions reduction by 2030, significant action will have to be taken on several fronts, and the country is already acting.
The first major component of the change is the increase in investment in public transportation in metropolitan areas. New metro lines in Lisbon and Porto are under construction or already have funds appropriated in the national Resilience and Recovery Plan (RRP), which has been approved under the Next Generation EU programme. Investment in the bus fleets is also under way in the metropolitan areas, both to increase the frequency and coverage of public transportation services and to acquire electrical or low emissions vehicles. Soft mobility investments in bike lanes and shared bikes schemes are also being undertaken. Portugal is the largest producer of bicycles in Europe and has recently grown the manufacture of e-bikes, so the investments are also favouring local industry. The same is actually happening in respect of the manufacturing of electrical vehicles (EV) and fuel cell buses.
Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Portugal – Towards a carbon neutral transportation system”
