Challenge Bibendum - Stockholm, a green city

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Home DISCOVERING THE SOLUTIONS Urban mobility Stockholm, a green city

Stockholm, a green city

05-12-2010 by Challenge Bibendum

Resume:
Stockholm, the Swedish capital, is the very first city to be designated “European Green Capital” in 2010. Created by the European Commission, this annual distinction rewards a city’s efforts to improve the living environment.

Ambitious targets to improve quality of life

Stockholm is a city of 800.000 inhabitants and is growing rapidly. The City’s long-term goal is to continue the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the same pace as at present. This will lead to Stockholm becoming fossil fuel-free by 2050. Between 1990 and 2005, greenhouse gas emissions fell by 25 % per inhabitant!

The Swedish capital is simultaneously engaged in the battle against congestion, local pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases (including those from heating and electricity production). Its goal is to completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels by 2020 for transport and by 2030 for heating. Moreover, 95% of the population lives only 300 m away from green areas.

A more environmentally friendly transportation system

Buses assure 75% of rush-hour traffic. In addition, out of the city’s total fleet of 2,000 buses 120 run on biogas and 535 on ethanol (for about 2,000 buses in all). The ethanol bus fleet is the largest in the world. By 2020 the entire bus fleet will use biofuels.The municipal fleet also uses biofuels and to serve them there are now about 40 distribution stations in the Stockholm area.

The Urban Metro and commuter trains use electricity obtained from renewable energies, in this case hydroelectric power. Since 2008 the City has been particularly involved in the establishment of infrastructure for electric cars and the testing of plug-in hybrids that can be both charged and driven on various fuels.
In Stockholm the number of cyclists has increased by 75% over the past ten years. Today Stockholm has 760 km of cycle lanes.

A congestion tax for road users

Stockholm operates a congestion tax which is part of a larger package for an overall traffic solution for a better environment and growth. The congestion charge was introduced in 2006 for cars travelling in and out of the inner city area during daytime hours. Cars are automatically registered at payment stations and the tax is paid monthly through an invoice sent to the vehicle owner. Since the start of this system Stockholm has seen a reduction in traffic congestion, an increase in the number of Stockholmers using public transport and an improvement in air quality.

Read also in this section:

- A new Award for “European Green Capitals”
- CarSharing, the car becomes a service
- The contribution of technology to limit traffic jams
- Singapore’s congestion pricing system
- Multimodal tools
- IBM enabling smart transportation systems
- “Organizational” solutions against traffic jams and gridlock

Categories: Biofuels - Fossil fuels - Climate change - Energy - Sustainable mobility - Urban strategies - Electric vehicles

Keywords: electric - Environment - greenhouse gas - hybrid - Infrastructure - Transportation

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