REPORT
Goal: Sustainable mobility
(with or without cars)
(with or without cars)
Published on September 22nd, 2015
This Tuesday, 22nd of September, the European Car-Free Day is celebrated, as part of the European Mobility Week. In line with this event, Clima@EduMedia introduces the concept of sustainable mobility as well as the latest developments in this area with an impact on climate change.
European Mobility Week has been taking place annually since 2002 in order to “encourage European municipalities to introduce and to promote sustainable transport”, as can be read in the European Commission document with the official guidelines for the initiative. The event covers 1670 cities across Europe among which are more than 50 Portuguese municipalities. The activities taking place in Portugal can be found here.
“Sustainable mobility is about being economically, socially and environmentally aware when selecting the best means of transport”, says António Pais Antunes, professor at the University of Coimbra and coordinator of the working group dedicated precisely to this theme in the research project EMSURE – Energy and Mobility for Sustainable Regions.
The project intervention areas include “the planning of urban transport networks, the study of new solutions for urban mobility, including shared mobility and electric mobility, the management of road pavements, and the so-called road engineering”, explains the researcher in an interview with Clima@EduMedia.
One of EMSURE project subjects of study is directly related to the mitigation of climate change. We speak of low emission zones, where, as it happens in Lisbon, heavy vehicles and vehicles with a certain age cannot circulate. The group led by Antonio Pais Antunes evaluated what would happen in Coimbra if the area of the city that is classified as World Heritage was a zone of reduced emissions. They concluded that “for the city as a whole the result would be negative in terms of pollution and emissions, regardless of the predicted improvements within the restricted zone”. This is because “in Coimbra, there is no alternative access to some of the busiest streets and avenues of the downtown area”, explains the author of the study, noting that the research undertaken under the EMSURE project will be further developed in the upcoming years, in order to assess the impact this prospective zone of reduced emissions can have on human health and on the state of the buildings.
"Choose. Change. Combine."
Save money, improve your health and help the environment through an intelligent choice of transport, in other words, focus on multimodality: this is the main message of the European Mobility Week 2015. The objective is to “encourage people to think about the variety of transport available and the best way to combine different forms, in a journey that can become faster, more pleasant and certainly more efficient”, claims Filipe Távora, from the Department of Communication and Environmental Citizenship of the Portuguese Environment Agency (entity responsible for the European Mobility Week in Portugal).
Indeed, the notion of a radical change in transport is still met with some resistance by the drivers. António Pais Antunes alerts to the fact that, for many drivers, none of the other mobility alternatives, such as public transport, cycling or walking, offer the same convenience as a car. That is probably why emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from transport continue to rise. “According to data from the European Environment Agency, in the past two decades, GHG emissions from transport throughout the European Union were the only to increase, unlike the emissions from other sectors (industry , power generation and buildings)”, emphasises Sofia Simões, researcher at the CENSE – Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research, of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, while speaking to Clima@EduMedia. The researcher also reminded that in Portugal transport emissions account for about 33% of total emissions of greenhouse gases.
Even if choosing to keep the car, it is still possible to contribute to climate change mitigation. Have you heard of Carsharing? In Portugal this type of system is still not popular, but in the world's great cities it is gaining considerable followers. “Anyone who adheres to the system can enter one of the electric vehicles parked around the city, with their membership card, use the car and then leave it in a parking space reserved for these vehicles. Another driver can then use the same vehicle”, explains the professor of the University of Coimbra. The group of researchers he coordinates has developed a system to assess whether this system, in a certain city, is economically viable.
The so-called shared mobility, combined with electric mobility, is becoming an increasingly used trend in large cities, thereby contributing to the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases and thus mitigating climate change.
Electric mobility: a solution on the way to autonomy
“In addition to potentially reduce GHG emissions and assuming that electricity is produced from renewable sources, opting for electric vehicles also reduces other emissions into the atmosphere such as particles and acidic gases (nitrogen oxides [NOx], for example). Nowadays, these emissions are considered a major cause of public health problems in European cities, as they lead to respiratory diseases and sharpen existing respiratory problems in risk groups such as children and the elderly”, said Sofia Simões. The researcher at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa adds that “electric vehicles are three to four times more efficient than the vehicles using fossil fuels, so they consume relatively less and, in the long term, could represent savings for drivers”.
What is then missing in order for electric mobility to become a predominant option? Experts contacted by Clima@EduMedia claim that the purchase of an electric car is still a significantly high investment, charging stations are limited, and the autonomy of these vehicles is far below that of internal combustion vehicles.
The EMSURE project contributed to this subject with the study of the optimal distribution of the charging station network in a city (for instance, in Coimbra). In general, the most important developments in electric cars worldwide relate precisely to the issue of autonomy. Normal charging time is approximately 30 minutes and currently enable an autonomy range of 80-120 kilometres. “New models were recently introduced, with improvements in autonomy and also in size and durability of the batteries”, explains Sofia Simões. Regarding the future, Antonio Pais Antunes expects that in “the next few years there will be an electric vehicle with an autonomy similar to that of a combustion automobile (300-400 kilometres)."
As an alternative, there are also hybrid cars with lower consumption of fossil fuels, cars that use biofuels or, in a more distant horizon, those that run on hydrogen produced from renewable electricity. At the moment, however, “the production of large-scale biofuel has been widely disputed, as having high environmental impact, in particular the destruction of ecosystems to cultivate plants used in their production, or even competing with the use of soil required to produce food”, said the CENSE researcher. On the other hand, the use of hydrogen raises issues of “storage security and high costs associated with production and distribution”. In practice, “it is likely that we will need to resort to all available technology to change our paradigm to a more sustainable mobility”, concludes Sofia Simões.
By: Isabel Pereira
“Sustainable mobility is about being economically, socially and environmentally aware when selecting the best means of transport”, says António Pais Antunes, professor at the University of Coimbra and coordinator of the working group dedicated precisely to this theme in the research project EMSURE – Energy and Mobility for Sustainable Regions.
The project intervention areas include “the planning of urban transport networks, the study of new solutions for urban mobility, including shared mobility and electric mobility, the management of road pavements, and the so-called road engineering”, explains the researcher in an interview with Clima@EduMedia.
One of EMSURE project subjects of study is directly related to the mitigation of climate change. We speak of low emission zones, where, as it happens in Lisbon, heavy vehicles and vehicles with a certain age cannot circulate. The group led by Antonio Pais Antunes evaluated what would happen in Coimbra if the area of the city that is classified as World Heritage was a zone of reduced emissions. They concluded that “for the city as a whole the result would be negative in terms of pollution and emissions, regardless of the predicted improvements within the restricted zone”. This is because “in Coimbra, there is no alternative access to some of the busiest streets and avenues of the downtown area”, explains the author of the study, noting that the research undertaken under the EMSURE project will be further developed in the upcoming years, in order to assess the impact this prospective zone of reduced emissions can have on human health and on the state of the buildings.
"Choose. Change. Combine."
Save money, improve your health and help the environment through an intelligent choice of transport, in other words, focus on multimodality: this is the main message of the European Mobility Week 2015. The objective is to “encourage people to think about the variety of transport available and the best way to combine different forms, in a journey that can become faster, more pleasant and certainly more efficient”, claims Filipe Távora, from the Department of Communication and Environmental Citizenship of the Portuguese Environment Agency (entity responsible for the European Mobility Week in Portugal).
Indeed, the notion of a radical change in transport is still met with some resistance by the drivers. António Pais Antunes alerts to the fact that, for many drivers, none of the other mobility alternatives, such as public transport, cycling or walking, offer the same convenience as a car. That is probably why emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from transport continue to rise. “According to data from the European Environment Agency, in the past two decades, GHG emissions from transport throughout the European Union were the only to increase, unlike the emissions from other sectors (industry , power generation and buildings)”, emphasises Sofia Simões, researcher at the CENSE – Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research, of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, while speaking to Clima@EduMedia. The researcher also reminded that in Portugal transport emissions account for about 33% of total emissions of greenhouse gases.
Even if choosing to keep the car, it is still possible to contribute to climate change mitigation. Have you heard of Carsharing? In Portugal this type of system is still not popular, but in the world's great cities it is gaining considerable followers. “Anyone who adheres to the system can enter one of the electric vehicles parked around the city, with their membership card, use the car and then leave it in a parking space reserved for these vehicles. Another driver can then use the same vehicle”, explains the professor of the University of Coimbra. The group of researchers he coordinates has developed a system to assess whether this system, in a certain city, is economically viable.
The so-called shared mobility, combined with electric mobility, is becoming an increasingly used trend in large cities, thereby contributing to the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases and thus mitigating climate change.
Electric mobility: a solution on the way to autonomy
“In addition to potentially reduce GHG emissions and assuming that electricity is produced from renewable sources, opting for electric vehicles also reduces other emissions into the atmosphere such as particles and acidic gases (nitrogen oxides [NOx], for example). Nowadays, these emissions are considered a major cause of public health problems in European cities, as they lead to respiratory diseases and sharpen existing respiratory problems in risk groups such as children and the elderly”, said Sofia Simões. The researcher at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa adds that “electric vehicles are three to four times more efficient than the vehicles using fossil fuels, so they consume relatively less and, in the long term, could represent savings for drivers”.
What is then missing in order for electric mobility to become a predominant option? Experts contacted by Clima@EduMedia claim that the purchase of an electric car is still a significantly high investment, charging stations are limited, and the autonomy of these vehicles is far below that of internal combustion vehicles.
The EMSURE project contributed to this subject with the study of the optimal distribution of the charging station network in a city (for instance, in Coimbra). In general, the most important developments in electric cars worldwide relate precisely to the issue of autonomy. Normal charging time is approximately 30 minutes and currently enable an autonomy range of 80-120 kilometres. “New models were recently introduced, with improvements in autonomy and also in size and durability of the batteries”, explains Sofia Simões. Regarding the future, Antonio Pais Antunes expects that in “the next few years there will be an electric vehicle with an autonomy similar to that of a combustion automobile (300-400 kilometres)."
As an alternative, there are also hybrid cars with lower consumption of fossil fuels, cars that use biofuels or, in a more distant horizon, those that run on hydrogen produced from renewable electricity. At the moment, however, “the production of large-scale biofuel has been widely disputed, as having high environmental impact, in particular the destruction of ecosystems to cultivate plants used in their production, or even competing with the use of soil required to produce food”, said the CENSE researcher. On the other hand, the use of hydrogen raises issues of “storage security and high costs associated with production and distribution”. In practice, “it is likely that we will need to resort to all available technology to change our paradigm to a more sustainable mobility”, concludes Sofia Simões.
By: Isabel Pereira