Member States have begun to take the decarbonization potential of cycling more seriously, but there is still a long way to go in recognising cycling as a fully-fledged instrument to reduce the carbon footprint of the transport sector. This is the main conclusion of the ECF report “Cycling underrepresented in EU Member States’ Final National Energy and Climate Plans”, published today (8 October 2020).

To determine the role of cycling, ECF assessed the 27 draft and final National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) 2021 – 2030 against 13 cycling or sustainable mobility-related indicators. We found that the attention given to cycling has improved since the (2018) draft NECPs: from a draft score of 2.7/10, to a 4.35/10 in the final NECPs, where 10 is the optimum score.

The top score was achieved by France (9.5) which aims at tripling the share of cycling in the transport modal split from 3 % in 2018 to 9 % in 2024 and has developed a detailed toolset to achieve this target. Runners-up are Austria (8.5) and Belgium (7.5).

The best climber country in the final NECP, compared to the draft just one year ago, is Portugal (+5.5) which has developed an ambitious Portugal Cycling 2030 Programme. Other strong climbers include Slovenia (+4.5), Denmark (+4), Ireland (+3.5) and Luxembourg (+3).

However, many Member States still did not add enough measures to support or fund cycling. Disappointingly, from the 17 countries that scored either an unsatisfactory (8) or an insufficient result (9) in the draft, 11 countries still failed to reach even moderate results. Two countries did not even mention cycling once: Bulgaria and Hungary! ECF’s analysis also shows a discrepancy between the NECPs and certain other national policy frameworks (e.g. National cycling strategies, national climate laws) where at times considerable higher attention has been paid to cycling. Therefore, this assessment should neither be understood as an evaluation of the EU countries’ national support to cycling nor as an overall appraisal of the status of cycling in Member States as a whole.

In the European Green Deal, released late 2019, the Commission announced its decarbonization objective: no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. To achieve this objective, transport emissions must be reduced by at least 90%. Because the NECPs are among the EU’s primary methods to meet its climate goals, these plans must include bold transport decarbonization measures. There is no conceivable way for the EU to achieve decarbonization without a major, further shift towards more cycling. To achieve zero-carbon emissions across Europe by 2050, it is therefore vital that European countries strongly support and fund cycling.

What happens next

The final NECPs have been released and the European Commission has published its overall assessment of the final NECP, acknowledging that “20 NECPS included detailed measures to increasing the use of bicycles” (COM(2020) 564 final, p. 10). But this is not the end of the process: The targets set in these NECPs reflect current emission reduction policies that will only reduce GHG emissions by 40% by 2030. But, in September 2020 the European Commission proposed a new 55 % GHG emission reduction target for 2030 compared to 1990 levels, subject to confirmation by the European Parliament and Council. In the near future, Member States will need to rework their NECPs to fit this new emission reduction objective.

ECF calls upon all Member States to 1) fully integrate concrete cycling measures during the NECP implementation phase, in particular, earmarked and sustained funding, and 2) include these additional cycling measures in the 2022 progress reports. To make a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 a reality, we need greater cycling ambition.

Source:

Fabian Küster, Maya Watson: Cycling Underrepresented in EU Member States’ Final National Energy and Climate Plans. European Cyclists’ Federation, October 2020.