The Programmatic Conference on Sustainable Mobility has drawn up ten stages which will serve to improve the Italian economic perspective from an environmental point of view, in view of the States General of the green economy. These points, if achieved, will contribute to the evolution of green transport and sustainable mobility in Italy. Today, the influence of urban public transport and cycle-pedestrian mobility in the country is very low, and decidedly below the European average. Furthermore, Italy is recorded as the country with the highest number of private cars/inhabitant, and transport produces around a quarter of total CO2 emissions.
For this reason, the stages will determine an important path in the history of the Italian "green economy". They include soft and technologically advanced mobility, low-emission vehicles and shipping, and second-generation biofuels. Here are the ten steps in detail:
1. A propagation of new low-emission road vehicles through the advancement of traditional engines on combustion vehicles (including hybrid ones). This would allow for a 2% improvement in CO30 emissions in Italy, which will also occur because electric vehicles could be implemented, reaching almost 18% of the national car parc in two decades.
2. The progress of biofuels to those of second generation, contributing to the reduction of gas emissions from transport. The target is to reach 20% in 2030, and in this Italy is having a lot of success.
3. A decrease in energy consumption in the maritime freight sector. The aim is to achieve a 35% reduction in consumption by 2030, crushing Italy's second position in CO2 emissions and final energy consumption.
4. The creation of an "Information technology system" (ITS) at the service of transport which, according to international studies, allows reductions of up to 40% in queues, 25% in total travel times, 10% in fuel consumption, 22 % in the emission of pollutants.
5. An impact on the modal share of public and shared transport in urban areas. This includes car-sharing, bike-sharing and carpooling.
6. Soft mobility must be encouraged, giving the cycle-pedestrian mode an essential role in the life of citizens. This will occur when pedestrian and cycling areas are given prominence in urban planning, so that cycling reaches 15% of the total.
7. Encouraging the use of metropolitan and regional rail transport, because these are capable of carrying large volumes of traffic. This will also be done through the planning of a railway station system which will become essential for public, shared and cycle-pedestrian mobility.
8. An increase in the transport of goods by rail, given that in Italy there is a dominance of road transport which can easily be eliminated. It is important to exploit all the possible situations in which rail transport can be implemented, given that this disadvantage is due to the structural modifications of the logistic, production and distribution chains. This increase is expected to reach 50% by 2030.
9. Passive settlement policies, or "the right business at the right place". Mobility increases its radius because the cities, where the large number of movements take place, increase their perimeter and vice versa. It is necessary to intervene by acting not only on the transport component of the problem (after) but also on the territorial component (before).
10. The encouragement of teleworking. In Europe, Italy ranks last for the number of teleworkers. Only 3,9% of the Italian population is employed in the sector, compared to the European average of 8,4%. The target would be to reduce the average number of journeys per day by 5% by 2020, and possibly by 20% by 2030.
