Webinar “Transition to a long-term sustainable transport system”
The transition to a long-term sustainable transport system must be implemented so that citizens and businesses, including industry and the transport sector, accept the goal of reducing emissions by 90% in the transport sector by 2050, as well as the ways and means to achieve this. This is exactly what will be discussed in this thematic webinar organized by ODRAZ, the secretariat of the CIVINET Slovenia-Croatia-SEE network, in cooperation with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). The webinar will be held on May 9, 2023 from 2:00 PM to 3:45 PM. The working language of the webinar is English. Registration deadline: May 8 until 12 noon.
The Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU has asked the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) for an exploratory opinion on the transition to a long-term sustainable transport system. The Swedish presidency believes that it is necessary to speed up this transition, so that the EU leads the way in the green transition.
Preparing an opinion on the topic of transition to sustainable transport systems was certainly not an easy task, given that it covers a wide spectrum – areas such as different modes of travel, energy and fuel, but also all three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, environmental and social.
Lidija Pavić-Rogošić, director of ODRAZ and member of EESC was the president of the study group that worked on the opinion and will moderate this webinar. Stefan Back, rapporteur and Mateusz Szymanski, co-rapporteur, will present this opinion, with particular attention to the social dimension of future mobility.
In the second part, attention will be put to sustainable urban mobility. Pedro Homem de Gouveia from POLIS network will talk about how NOT to transform urban mobility and warn of lessons learned from European frontrunners in urban mobility. At the end, a good example of planning and implementing measures for better quality and greener mobility in the Belgian city of Leuven, will be presented by Tim Asperges.
This is followed by a short discussion with the participants and closing remarks by the speakers.
Programme
The programme is available HERE.
Registration
Register your participation at the webinar no later than Monday, May 8, by 12 noon via the following link: https://forms.gle/ZpKQ8EBEfTmetSy48
Access to the Zoom platform: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrdOiprDgpH9Go6OOztJGV-5xOuyEwTHly
Speakers
Stefan Back, Director EU and sustainable transport, Confederation of Swedish Transport Enterprises, responsible for infrastructure, climate and energy issues. Stefan Back has close to 40 years of experience in transport policy and has held several positions in the Ministry of Transport in Sweden as well as General secretary in Swedish international freight association (SIFA).
Member of EESC – European Economic and Social Committee since 2010. He has been rapporteur on many important transport and climate related opinions, including Transition to a long-term sustainable transport system.
Mateusz Szymanski,
Expert of the Polish trade union NSZZ “Solidarność”. In the past, he was responsible for the coordination of the tripartite social dialogue. Currently heads the work of the foreign office.
Member of the EESC since 2020. He sits on the Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society (TEN) and External Relations (REX) Section, where he deals, inter alia, with transport issues. He was a co-rapporteur on opinion Transition to a long-term sustainable transport system.
Pedro Homem de Gouveia is Senior Policy and Project Manager at POLIS, the leading network of European cities and regions committed to transport innovation. He coordinates the Working Groups for Governance & Integration, and for Road Safety & Security. He’s an architect with extensive experience in Urban Governance, Public Participation, Strategic Planning, Universal Design, Public Space, Pedestrian Accessibility, Street Safety, and inquiry for design (surveys, focus groups, structured observation, user testing). Worked for more than 20 years at the local level, as a strategist, designer, trainer, consultant, and political advisor. In the City of Lisbon, he developed and implemented the Pedestrian Accessibility Plan, and kick-started the Vision Zero planning process.
Tim Asperges – expert advisor mobility policy city of Leuven (B)
Tim Asperges is urban planner with expertise in urban mobility for more than 20 years. Since 2014
he is working as expert advisor for the city of Leuven. Before his was director of the consultancy
Timenco bv (actually Tridée advisors) and he worked as a researcher/lecturer for the Institute for
mobility of the Hasselt University. Tim is a guest lecturer on urban mobility for the UCLL, the
UHasselt, the Highschool on traffic planning, …
For the period 2022-2023 the city of Leuven is president of the European city and regions network
POLIS and Tim is president of the POLIS management comity. This city network works on innovation
in urban mobility and within this presidency the city of Leuven is hosting the international POLIS
conference at the end of this year on the 29-30th of November. We are expecting around 1.000
transport professionals from all over the world.
Tim is one of the architects of the ambitious mobility plan of Leuven which transformed the city in
the Belgian cycling city number one. He initiated different EU-projects which focus on new mobility
services (e.g. e-HUB project), data-collection/ modelling and citizens involvement. Tim is seen as a
bridge builder who sees the involvement of citizens and other actors as a foundation and his motto
“Mobility connects people” is one of his main motivations. For his overall approach as a bridge
builder in mobility planning he was rewarded as ‘mobility personality of the year’ in Belgium in 2019.
In his presentation he explains the role of the local government as market master of the public
domain and its guidance to sustainable transport.
.
.
.
Find out more about the activities of the CIVINET network here: https://civinet-slohr.eu/hr/english/
More about EESC: https://www.eesc.europa.eu/e