How mobility can help change the conversation about the climate transition?
We are living a difficult period for environmental policies and the ecological and climate transition. In Europe, especially after the recent European Parliament elections, the Green Deal is facing harsh criticism, sometimes outright attack. Some of its key elements are in jeopardy. Why? Because the Green Deal is often perceived as being unfair, a burden that is unequally distributed between different stakeholders.
Mobility as a vector for social cohesion
But in fact, public transportation and mobility can be a strong vector of social cohesion, and help us put the Green Deal back on track. It is clear that road transport is a leading source of emissions across Europe, and needs to be decarbonized. By developing public transportation, we can both decarbonize road transport and reinforce social cohesion. Our cities were built around the use of individual cars, but need to better integrate public transportation networks, bicycles and pedestrians, even if cars remain part of the equation. Public transportation brings people together, fostering a sense of doing this together, not just each person for themselves. This is especially important in peri-urban areas that often face both social and transport poverty issues. If we don’t combine environmental issues and social cohesion issues, I’m afraid that we will fail on both counts. By combining them intelligently, we can succeed in both.
The perception of climate action
We know today that some challenges related to cleaner and more inclusive transport should have been tackled years or decades ago. But we also realize that one reason why climate action often takes so long is that it is still widely perceived as a constraint, as a burden. We have insisted on the impacts of climate change that would materialize if we don’t do anything. But we have probably not insisted enough on the benefits of action. We really need to reverse the way we communicate about climate action.
Emphasizing the benefits
Mobility, and public transportation in particular, is a great way to materialize these benefits, because we have seen that investment in public transportation and mobility schemes is also a way to make cities more enjoyable. Politics should be about making people happier, but very often we lose track of that objective. One of the reasons for the backlash against climate action is that people feel the constraint, the burden, the blood and the tears. But they don’t see the victory. They don’t see the benefits. We absolutely need to insist on those benefits to make them visible. Perhaps the best way to do that is through mobility.
About the mobility times
This second edition of The Mobility Times, which documents The Mobility Sphere’s journey, is dedicated to “Mobility as a driver of social cohesion”, theme of the forum held in Brussels in April 2024, which followed a first event on decarbonized mobility in Amsterdam in October 2023.
The Mobility Sphere think tank, launched by Transdev Group in 2023, aims to explore and shape the future of mobility in Europe.
Mobility and social cohesion were obvious topics for the second Mobility Sphere forum, held in the run-up to the European elections at a time when the European Union’s Green Deal is being brought into question. Among the concerns voiced are those about the inequalities it could generate, reinforce, or fail to address. A consensus is emerging amongst multi-disciplinary experts that if the ecological transition is to be accepted by the public, it must include support for the most vulnerable and reduce the divide between different geographical areas. Ensuring an inclusive transition has become a major priority so nobody is left behind on the journey towards decarbonized and accessible mobility.
Mobility is not a given for everyone and has a real cost, sometimes of up to a quarter of a household’s income in the European Union. In France, 1 in 4 people have turned down a job or training course for lack of sufficient transport and in rural areas more and more people are stranded due to a lack of mobility solutions. Unequal access to mobility combined with fuel poverty can provoke tensions and social unrest.
This edition of The Mobility Times presents highlights of discussions, insights and analysis of the challenges related to the question of mobility as a driver of social cohesion. Discover the points of view of mobility experts, politicians, academics, philosophers, business leaders and other stakeholders, representing different countries and regions, in this edition.
We hope you enjoy reading it.