Varying strategies for supporting regional fossil-free transport systems

Local and regional authorities have an important role in the transition to fossil-free transport systems, but there is uncertainty regarding what choices to make in procurement as well as long-term planning. A recently finished project within the f3 and Swedish Energy Agency collaborative research program Renewable transportation fuels and systems has analyzed how visions and strategies in sixteen Swedish municipalities can be used to strengthen the understanding of the actions needed, what information is needed in different situations, and how available ICT solutions support decision-making. Cecilia Sundberg, SLU, has led the project that has been carried out with participants also from KTH and Lund University (IIIEE) and is titled From visions to smart ICT – Local transitions to renewable transportation.

The project results conclude that the studied Swedish cities generally have explicit visions and goals toward fossil free scenarios by or before 2050. In terms of translating these visions and goals into targets and actionable strategies there are considerable variations in approach among the studied municipalities, reflecting – among other things – different stages of development work with climate planning and different human and economic resources available to municipal authorities. The transport system clearly represents the most important and equally the most challenging sector to work with to achieve fossil free visions.

Results from the project are delivered in three publications, two of which are still currently being revised. An extended summary that covers the main findings is however available.