SOLUTIONS and UEMI are looking for Cities to Implement Sustainable Urban Mobility
The pursuit of sustainable mobility cannot be separated from reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. And therein lies a critical area — electric-mobility.
The shift has begun, with governments around the Asia region are driving electric-mobility initiatives to encourage the embrace of electric vehicles. In Beijing, the government aims to gradually begin replacing the 67,000 petrol-powered taxis on the capital’s roads starting this year. That replacement drive alone would create a market worth about USD$1.31 billion.
Meantime, Singapore is now home to the biggest electric taxi fleet in South East Asia, with the nation’s only electric taxi operator quadrupling its fleet of 30 to 130. That milestone sets a shining example to the region, including for Malaysia’s Cohesive Mobility Solution (COMOS), an electric vehicle sharing service for registered (and paying) members.
Read about: Electric Vehicles on the Roads in Nepal since 1975
Read about: Malaysia Sustainable Urban Mobility Focuses on Transit Oriented Development
Now, you can be the change-maker for your own city too. Start bringing your local urban mobility into the future via the latest three-year initiative by SOLUTIONS network, UEMI and the EU-funded project FUTURE-RADAR.
The SOLUTIONS network and the UEMI are looking for take-up cities to work together on the implementation of sustainable urban mobility measures. This is part of a new partnership with the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) and the European Green Vehicles Initiative (EGVI) as part of the EU-funded project FUTURE-RADAR.
As part of an effort to deliver on the New Urban Agenda the team invites cities to help assessing the opportunities for sustainable mobility concepts in their wider context of sustainable urban development. The mission of the SOLUTIONS and UEMI partnerships is to support the take-up of sustainable urban mobility solutions in cities across the world and foster the integration of urban electric mobility solutions into sustainable transport strategies.
The SOLUTIONS network and the UEMI are looking for take-up cities to work together on the implementation of sustainable urban mobility measures. As part of urban implementation actions the team now works with cities to assess the opportunities for electric-mobility concepts in their wider sustainable transport strategy.
The mission of the SOLUTIONS and UEMI partnerships are therefore to support the take-up of innovative sustainable urban mobility solutions in cities across the world and foster the integration of urban electric mobility solutions into sustainable transport concepts.
The focus will predominantly be on ‘second-tier’ cities, rather than mega-cities. The regions targeted represent different levels of maturity in terms of experience with sustainable urban mobility related actions. This will be addressed by adopting different approaches for these regions. Cities, as well as local and national officials can now apply to become involved in the UEMI and the SOLUTIONS network for one of the following categories:
Leading cities
Leading cities are willing to share their expertise in the development and implementation of sustainable urban mobility solutions. They will also benefit from the mutual learning process and the knowledge sharing with other cities in the world within the context of SOLUTIONS and the UEMI.
Leading cities will:
- provide input on successful innovative and transferable urban transport solutions they have implemented;
- share their expertise with take-up and training cities through knowledge-sharing events and input for feasibility studies.
Take-up cities
These cities should show a real sense of commitment to assess opportunities for the transfer of innovative solutions to their context.
Together with these cities, the team will:
- explore options for the uptake of innovative sustainable urban mobility solutions;
- support implementation processes that have already started in the take-up cities;
- initiate the development of complementary measures.
The feasibility studies at city level will:
- develop packages of solutions building on existing, planned and potentially additional measures;
- test the economic viability and public acceptability of measures, assess costs and economic, social and environmental benefits;
- consider institutional and governance issues along with factors of success and barriers that may accelerate, delay or inhibit uptake, and thus, influence public acceptability of proposed solutions.
The cities to be selected for this phase in the project will be second-tier cities to ensure a high level of transferability to the large number of similar cities as opposed to the few first-tier or megacities in the world. These four feasibility studies will serve as showcases for the deployment and uptake of innovative sustainable mobility solutions.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants can be any public authority with a competence in local transport (regions, public transport authorities or public agencies), they can be supported by local NGOs and knowledge partners to implement the program.
Training participants
Interested local & national officials, as well as practitioners and experts will be able to participate in several knowledge-sharing and capacity-building workshops, webinars and e-learning courses focusing on successful examples of innovative sustainable mobility solutions.
This activity is part of the EU-funded project FUTURE-RADAR. All activities within the context of the initiative will take place between May 2017 and May 2020.
Candidates need to complete the application forms to apply either as leading city, take-up city or training participant.
The call is open until 30 April 2017. For more details on the process and the application form, visit the UEMI website.
About UEMI
The Action Platform: Urban Electric Mobility Initiative (UEMI) was initiated by UN-Habitat and the SOLUTIONS project and launched at the UN Climate Summit in September 2014 in New York. The UEMI aims to contribute significantly to the overall goal of limiting the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by decreasing urban CO2 emissions globally. As one of the Action Areas of the UN Climate Summit the UEMI aims to boost the share of electric vehicles in individual mobility (2-3 wheelers and light duty vehicles) and integrate electric mobility into a wider concept of sustainable urban transport that achieves a 30 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas by 2030:
UN-Habitat Action Platform
UN-Habitat Communique Mobility
Sustainable energy and mobility can make positive contributions to a number of policy objectives, nationally and locally. In particular in cities there is a great potential to create synergies between for example safety, air quality, productivity, access and climate change mitigation. A UEMI resource centre will provide opportunities for direct collaboration on projects focusing on sustainable urban mobility and the role emobility can play in it. The UEMI will pool expertise, facilitate exchange and initiate implementation oriented actions. UN-Habitat, the Wuppertal Institute and the Climate Action Implementation Facility jointly host the resource centre for the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative, aiming to bridge the gap between urban energy and transport and boosting sustainable transport and urban emobility.
