Recently, at the middle of March, 11 organisations from the transport and industry sectors launched the Platform for the Electrification of Surface Transport. By this initiative, they signed a common declaration requesting to the public authorities to support the electrification of public transport, based on a multimodal approach of the urban transport system.
The measure represents a step forward to the fulfilment of the objective of the consumption reduction and the dependence on fossil fuels in the transport sector which still depends on fuels at a rate of 95%.
The European Union has launched with the consent of the international community a call on the drastic reduction of emissions at the world level in order to limit climate changes to less than 2°C. Reaching this objective by the European Union generally supposes the reduction of emissions of 80-95% by 2050, compared to 1990, under the circumstances of the necessary reductions made by the group of developed countries. The European Union’s analysis shows that while in other economic sectors more significant increases can be reached, in the transport sector – which represents a significant and still growing source of greenhouse gas – by 2050 greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced by at least 60% compared to 1990”, informs the 2011 White Paper on Transport. The infrastructure shows the extent of mobility. No major change in the field of transport will be possible without the support of an adequate network and of its smarter use. Overall, the investments in the transport infrastructure stimulate the economic and job number increase and favour the integrated mobility.
Considering these challenges and admitting the importance of a competitive European transport industry, the signatary organisations are certain that a substantial electrification of the transport system is essential. An electrified urban transport represents the optimal solution for the decongestion of great cities and for the pollution reduction. Available at world level and at the same time generated on a large scale inside the European Union, the electrification, used to a scale as large as possible, can support the promotion of the fuel diversification, can enforce the energy security and can reduce at the same time the air and the noise pollution inside the great cities, according to the 11 organisations which initiated the Platform for the Electrification of Surface Transport.
Alstom, Avere, CER, ETRA, Eurelectric, Eurobat, Going Electric, Nissan, POLIS, UNIFE and UITP are the 11 member orga-nisations of the recently launched Platform.
In addition, the signatary organisations support the introduction of compulsory economic instruments to make sure that the objective of emission reduction in the transport sector is reached and at the same time request to the European Commission to prepare draft laws for this purpose.
The development of adequate economic instruments would accelerate the use of railway but also road vehicles efficient in terms of energy consumption and with considerably reduced carbon emissions. This would equally support the international competitiveness of transport equipment manufacturers in Europe. Among other measures, continuous efforts are necessary as regards the research-development-innovation policies, as well as the financing strategies.
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