Launch of the report ‘Aligning Transport Decarbonisation across levels – a comparative review of countries’

Decarbonising the transport sector has become a key priority for contemporary transport and climate policies around the world. This challenge not only involves international organizations and national governments but increasingly also regional and local authorities, which have committed themselves to help alleviate climate emergencies or deliver ambitious climate goals. This latter is for example seen in Great Britain, Sweden and notably here in Denmark, where nearly all municipalities have volunteered to are deliver Paris Agreement compatible action plans via the so-called DK2020 project.

Several levels of government engaging in transport decarbonisation seems well justified for a complex sector that is hard and slow to abate. Each level has responsibilities for different parcels of the spatial domain, different sections of the transport system, and different levers in the policy toolbox.

However, when different levels of authority intervene in the same field, coherence, consistency, and coordination becomes important. Transport decarbonization is likely to be facilitated and expedited if strategies and actions are well aligned across levels of government.

In 2022 CONCITO, Denmark’s green think tank entered a collaboration with Professor Greg Marsden of Leeds University with the purpose to review and compare features of existing governing frameworks for transport decarbonisation in Great Britain, Denmark, and other countries.

The main aim has been to understand better how local action for transport decarbonisation can be supported by central initiative, to review strengths and weaknesses of different frameworks and measures applied in practice, and to explore options to enhance the alignment and coordination across levels, with a special view to Denmark, The results will inform the Danish context for example via the DK2020 project, and hopefully the new government initiative “Sammen om klimaet” (“together for climate”). Results will also be communicated through international channels, 

To present and discuss the report from the collaboration CONCITO will host a seminar on Tuesday, February 28, 14:00h-16:00h [1pm – 3pm UK time] in Læderstræde 20, Copenhagen, and online. Experts from key British and Danish policy organisations are invited to discuss findings and draft recommendations from the study.

Sign up for the seminar here.

The seminar program is outlined below.

Seminar program