November 02, 2020
Old diesel cars are no longer allowed in Amsterdam since Sunday. There is a new environmental zone in the area within the A10 ring road. The ban applies to passenger cars and delivery vans made before 2006. On the ring road itself, the old diesel cars are still allowed to drive. For the time being, […]
October 30, 2020
Berliners did not believe it anymore: their new airport BER will welcome its first planes on Saturday, nine years behind schedule, and with major worries at a time when the airline sector is undergoing the worst crisis in history. The Berlin Brandenburg Airport will replace the two current airports of the German capital, Tegel and […]
October 28, 2020
According to the New Energy Outlook (NEO), BloombergNEF’s annual long-term analysis on the future of the energy economy, the energy transition continues to accelerate thanks to the corona pandemic, but still not fast enough to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement. The report was published on Tuesday. The report now also covers transport, […]
October 27, 2020
The export of old and polluting cars from Western countries is a threat to the countries of destination. Most of those cars end up in developing countries. That is what a report by the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) states. According to the report, 14 million old cars were exported between 2015 and 2018. Almost half […]
October 26, 2020
There are already several smart mobility apps available to help you find your way around the mobility offer. And companies can hire or recruit a mobility manager, someone who offers help within the company to develop a real strategy around mobility and ensure a good follow-up and evaluation. For those who can no longer disentangle […]
October 19, 2020
Brussels is planning an unseen operation to improve the air quality in the city. Next year, the city will install 3 000 measuring points to map pollution in the streets. On top of that, more than 200 school children will be monitored for health problems as they are likely to inhale more particles. The European […]
October 16, 2020
As in the private sector, local and provincial staff will, in the future, be able to opt for a bicycle lease contract as part of their salary. On the proposal of Minister of Home Affairs, the Flemish government, Bart Somers (Open Vld), decided this. The measure is a response to the fact that more and […]
October 15, 2020
From 2023 onward, the Flemish transport company De Lijn wanted to transport passengers with an autonomous shuttle on a few fixed routes in Antwerp, Leuven, Mechelen, and Genk. But De Lijn is about to call off the ambitious project because it is too complex and expensive. On Wednesday, De Lijn did not want to confirm […]
October 15, 2020
The European Commission has evaluated the different Energy and Climate plans of the member states. The Belgian plan’s analysis is critical: the goals are in line with the expectations, the plan itself is “hard to analyze” and “lacks ambition”. In Belgium, it’s not very simple to find an agreement over a National Energy and Climate […]
October 14, 2020
The corona crisis pushed us all back into the car. The result? Cities have to swallow more and more car traffic and air pollution than before the crisis. The lockdown in spring had one positive side effect: cities were freed from traffic congestion and could recover. According to data from Brussels Environment, the 62% reduction […]
October 13, 2020
More than a quarter of all journeys in the Netherlands are made by bicycle. As a result, the Dutch make the most frequent use of bicycles worldwide. For example, last year, the Dutch made 4,8 billion journeys with the bicycle, covering 17,6 billion km. The Knowledge Institute for Mobility Policy (Kennisinstituut voor Mobiliteitsbeleid, KiM) reports […]
October 12, 2020
The construction of 40 km of extra cycling paths and the closure of the Bois de la Cambre are a heavy burden for some Brussels motorists. Many complain about the congestion linked to these measures, taken during the lockdown, to the point that they have taken these two cases to court. Pollution The municipality of […]
October 12, 2020
In Sweden, a housing corporation will soon finish 44 self-supporting apartments. Residents will we totally independent of the network for water, electricity, and heat. “We will show the world that all available ecologic methods can manage it all.” “We’ve searched for existing solutions,” explains Pär Löfstedt of architecture and design bureau Yellon. “Otherwise, it would […]
October 08, 2020
The 700-meter cycle path through the trees in the Limburg Kempen may be copied in Brussels. Architect and city planner Phillipe Verdussen has put forward a cycle and pedestrian bridge through the trees in the Brussels Bois de la Cambre to reconcile the different modes of mobility. Green space and traffic node The Bois de […]
October 08, 2020
On Wednesday, the European Parliament pushed through its even higher climate ambitions than those of the Commission, by voting a 60% CO2 reduction by 2030 instead of 55%. Environmentalist parties claimed victory with 352 votes against 326. Belgium voted divided with a line of break more or less by the linguistic frontier. The 60% CO2 […]
October 07, 2020
In 93% of Flanders, the threshold value of fine particles was exceeded in 2019, causing 4 800 premature deaths a year. The ozone standard was exceeded in the whole of Flanders. as well. Only the regions of Haspengouw, Maasland, and the south of Flemish Brabant remained under the strictest levels for particles. These are some […]
October 05, 2020
On Sunday, during a press conference in Tokyo, Honda’s CEO announced that the company would be leaving Formula One by the end of 2021. Honda is pulling all R&D resources toward its new aim of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Over the two last seasons, Honda won five races with Red Bull and AlphaTauri. “The […]
October 05, 2020
The NGO Transport and Environment makes a remarkable plea to make company cars all over Europe, which account for six in ten new cars sold, up to 30% electric by 2025, and 100% by 2030. “Now,” says T&E, “EU taxpayers ‘fork out €32 billion for tax benefits for polluting diesel and gasoline cars.” The latter […]
October 05, 2020
Since this week, there is a new player in car sharing in Belgium: the Danish GreenMobility. Antwerp and Ghent are the first cities outside the Scandinavian countries where the Danish company is active. In the autumn, they will land in Brussels too. In the Scheldt city, GreenMobility has settled with a fleet of 150 shared […]
October 02, 2020
The University of Cambridge (UK) abandons every investment in fossil fuels before 2030. Under the pressure of ecologists, students, and employees of the university, Cambridge commits itself to invest in renewable energy. The university has an investment fund totaling an impressive £3,5 billion, one of the most important in Europe in its style. The decision […]
October 02, 2020
‘Europe Endless’ sings the German electronic music group Kraftwerk on the album Trans Europ Express, as a tribute to the former network of luxury domestic and international express trains in Europe that was started in 1957. The idea of a pan-European high-speed train network is alive and kicking again now that the German government wants […]
October 01, 2020
Dutch oil and gas multinational Shell is going to cut 7 to 9 000 jobs, merely 8 to 10% of its 83 000 worldwide workforces, to save 2,5 billion dollars by 2022. It comes on top of lowering the distribution of dividends – for the first time since World War II – and a historic […]
October 01, 2020
After 493 days, Belgium has a new government, the so-called Vivaldi coalition. No less than seven parties are part of it, among them, the green parties, and this has its consequences concerning mobility. We give a first overview. Minus 55% Concerning the greenhouse gases, the new government is aligning itself to the green deal of […]
September 28, 2020
The Dutch-British oil and gas company, Shell, is not going to look for oil in the polar region north of Alaska. It wants to sell the licenses there. Oil companies are diversifying their portfolios into more diverse and more sustainable assets. However, it is notable that the European oil companies are much quicker to focus […]
September 28, 2020
In the spring of this year, Chinese/Swedish car manufacturer Polestar presented a concept car that was prefiguring the future of the company. Now has been decided that this Polestar Precept will be built in a new facility as a genuine production car. It was at the Beijing Motor Show that Polestar CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, confirmed […]
September 25, 2020
French oil giant Total is going to convert the Grandpuits refinery, one of its largest in France, entirely to biofuels, plastic recycling, and biodegradable plastics. That is what the group announced on Thursday. “At the end of 2023, there will not be a drop of oil left on this site,” says Bernard Pinatel, general manager […]
September 24, 2020
In the State of California, it should no longer be possible to buy new gasoline, diesel, or hybrid cars by 2035. Governor Gavin Newsom announced to phase out cars with a traditional combustion engine. Clean car This announcement does not come by chance at the moment, because California is suffering from the effects of climate […]
September 24, 2020
China wants to be CO2-neutral in 2060. That is what President Xi Jinping announced on Tuesday, September 23rd, during a video conference with the United Nations. The question is how realistic these ambitious plans are. Unseen ambitions Today, China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. When the country says it wants […]
September 23, 2020
Dryness again causes low water levels on the Rhine. This obstructs the supply of important industrial centers. Tariffs for German inland navigation are rising sharply. German economy The ever longer periods of drought weigh on the water level of the Rhine, the main transport artery to southern Germany. The bottleneck in Kaub, where the Rhine […]
September 22, 2020
Bpost group has today introduced new double-deck trailers to reduce its truck transport by 30%. “This is a first for the parcels sector in Belgium,” says the Belgian national postal operator. Bpost group wants to purchase more than 320 double-deck trailers by 2030 and intends to increase that number even to 550 over the next […]
September 22, 2020
“Politicians don’t dare to tell the truth: the battle against climate change will make a demand on everybody’s purse. Only a CO2 tax can save the climate.” These are the words of Christian Gollier, an influential Belgian economist with an international reputation, and author of ‘Le climat après la fin du mois’ in an extended […]
September 22, 2020
On Monday, Norway announced its ambition to invest 1,6 billion euros into carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. The biggest investment of this envelope will be for a CO2 capture project at a cement factory in Brevik and capable of capturing 400 000 tons of CO2 from 2024 onward. Seen by some as the holy […]
September 21, 2020
Seven out of ten Belgians opt for the car for commuting to and from work. This is the conclusion of a survey conducted in June in several countries by HR service provider SD Worx. However, Belgians do not make the most use of the car for commuting between home and work. France and Germany score […]
September 21, 2020
On Sunday, The Agoria Solar Team has won the championship for solar cars on the race track of Zolder (Belgium). The team with the Bluepoint car covered 352 rounds. The Solar Team of Twente (the Netherlands) obtained the second and third place with Red Shift (313 rounds) and Red E (304 rounds. In the lead […]
September 21, 2020
Last week, the plans of the Vivaldi coalition for a Belgian federal government leaked: one of the items that caused turmoil was the obligation to electrification for new company cars, starting in 2026. Of course, the reactions on this plan went in all directions. We try to list all criticisms and give an overview. The […]
September 18, 2020
Flemish public transport company, De Lijn, has suspended the public contract tender for the purchase of 970 electric buses this summer. That is what the newspaper De Tijd writes, and De Lijn confirms the news. According to the transport company, when the procedure was drawn up and opened, it became clear that a ‘change of […]
September 17, 2020
The first ‘state of the union’ of EU leader Ursula Von der Leyen showed high ambitions climate-wise. The car sector has already reacted to the tendencies that can be deducted from the most recent political proposals. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has immediately reacted by saying “that it supports the European Union’s long-term goal […]
September 16, 2020
Climate change will cost Belgium in 2050, almost 9,5 billion euros due to extreme heat, drought, and flooding. The possible benefits, due to sunny summers, among others, are estimated at some 3 billion euros. That is the conclusion of ‘The evaluation of the socio-economic impact of climate change in Belgium’, a study by Vito, Kenter, […]
September 16, 2020
In her first State of the Union, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, traced out on Wednesday the path of an ambitious energy transition that is to impact everyday life for the next thirty years. New is the sharpened target of 55% CO2 reduction by 2030. A goal that should be ‘feasible’ […]
September 15, 2020
The British oil company, BP, one of the five largest oil groups in the world, believes that the era of ever-increasing oil consumption is already behind us, and that 2019 will go down in oil history as the year in which oil consumption – at 99,7 million barrels a day – reached its highest level […]
September 15, 2020
Greenpeace Belgium has published its step-by-step plan for mobility in Europe to become carbon neutral by 2040. One of the spearheads is a total ban on sales of new ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars after 2028. No diesel or gasoline cars, no hybrids either. The European Commission is planning to revise the emission standards for […]
September 14, 2020
Cathy Macharis, professor of sustainable mobility and logistics at the Brussels University VUB, published her new book ‘Met een factor 8 naar de mobiliteit van de toekomst’ last week. She urges everybody to make the transition to sustainable mobility as soon as possible. Most important to reach this goal are further enlarged investments in public […]
September 14, 2020
LeasePlan Belgium, the Belgian division of the international specialist in the field of leasing and fleet management, delivered Friday 30 Polestar 2 models to the company’s staff. With the delivery, the leasing specialist continues it’s ambitious and strategic sustainable mobility plan. On schedule Ten years ago, LeasePlan Belgium was the first leasing company in Belgium […]
September 14, 2020
The ‘Park + Bike’ offer introduced in the Brussels region after the lockdown is extended. Brussels Mobility is announcing this. Until 15 October, commuters will be able to park (almost) for free on the outskirts of the city and continue their journey by rental bike. Spectacularly more bicycle trips With the start of the new […]
September 11, 2020
A pilot project with 13 fully electric buses of Flemish public bus company De Lijn is starting in Leuven, Antwerp, and Ghent. By 2025, Flemish Mobility Minister, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), wants public transport in city centers to run entirely emission-free and by 2035, extend this to the whole of Flanders. “That’s a tough ambition, […]
September 11, 2020
According to the Environmental Commission of the European Parliament, CO2 emissions should be down by 60% by 2030 to accomplish neutrality by 2050. This goal, more ambitious than 50 to 55% the EU Commission itself is likely to propose, should also become part of the binding climate law. Climate-neutral in 2050 The climate law, introduced […]
September 10, 2020
In the long term, it is cheaper to keep two Belgian nuclear power plants open than to close them and switch to alternatives in 2025. This is the conclusion of a study by EnergyVille, a research center linked to KU Leuven and UHasselt, about which De Tijd reports. The study was commissioned by the Engie […]
September 09, 2020
The emissions of greenhouse gases are 8% lower than last year due to the corona outbreak. And this sudden decline will not be compensated by later increases. According to the Norwegian research bureau DNV GL, 2019 will go down in history as the year with the highest CO2 emission levels ever. Permanent effects The Covid-19 […]
September 09, 2020
The American ride-hailing company, Uber, wants to become an emission-free platform by 2040. A first step will be to make at least half of all Uber rides emission-free by 2025 in Brussels and several other European cities. The city of Amsterdam, however, is even more ambitious: it wants to have all transport services in the […]
September 04, 2020
Europe is too dependent on China for crucial raw materials such as lithium for the Green Deal. That is why it wants to support recycling, its own extraction, and processing, precisely to achieve ‘strategic autonomy’. The EU is thinking of the creation of an ‘alliance for rare metals and minerals’ as it did for the […]
September 04, 2020
Mobility organization Touring has an alternative bicycle and pedestrian plan which does not require the removal of lanes for cars in the Brussels region. In this way, Touring asks that several new cycle paths on busy approach roads in the Brussels region disappear again. The construction of these cycle paths was a decision of the […]
September 04, 2020
The huge fires in the north pole area, in Siberia particularly, have already broken the year record of 2019 for the emission of greenhouse gases. Since January, one-quarter of a billion tons CO2 have reached the atmosphere, or one-third more than the year before., according to satellite data of Copernicus, the planet observation program of […]
September 03, 2020
The Belgium gas grid operator, Fluxys, will test in the UK whether old natural gas pipelines can be used to transport hydrogen. Fluxys Belgium thus aspires to play a leading role in the development of an international hydrogen network. “Hydrogen can play an important role in making industries more sustainable.” FutureGrid At a military test […]
September 02, 2020
A new study by the technical university of Eindhoven (TU Eindhoven) is very clear: when you consider (CO2) emissions, electric cars are always cleaner, also when you consider their production and electricity out of fossil fuels. The study was ordered by the green fraction in the European Parliament. The green MPs wanted to know finally […]
September 01, 2020
As from today, September 1st, cars with a too high emission level can be recalled by European authorities throughout Europe. If fraud is detected, manufacturers risk fines of up to €30 000 per car. The new rules are implemented to avoid a huge emission fraud like the one discovered in 2015 (first in the US) […]
August 31, 2020
From 1 September, the speed on the Brussels Ring Road will be reduced to 100 km/hour. On Friday, the three competent ministers from the Flemish and Brussels Governments unveiled one of the 280 new road signs that will indicate the speed limit. The measure – part of the Flemish Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 – […]
August 31, 2020
Dutch start-up VoltH2, the brainchild of Belgian energy pioneer André Jurres (56), has signed an agreement with the North Sea Port collective to build a 25 MW hydrogen electrolysis plant in Vlissingen by 2023, later to be expanded to 100 MW. The idea is to use ‘green’ electricity from Dutch offshore wind parks. So far, […]
August 28, 2020
It might sound too good to be true, a nuclear-waste-battery that lasts for decades. Imagine an electric car you won’t have to charge in ninety years. Californian start-up NDB Inc. isn’t the first to prove the technology could work. And if it works and it’s safe, it will be a disruptive technology that could change […]
August 28, 2020
One in four Belgians says that he or she wants to change his or her way of commuting permanently, even if corona is overcome. That is the conclusion of a study by Permesso, the consumer platform of data analyst Bisnode. Soft mobility popular No less than 66% of those surveyed indicate that they are already […]
August 28, 2020
If one out of ten Dutch people with a job will continue to work from home one day and a half more than before the corona crisis, this will save three billion of commuting kilometers a year. Moreover, it will save 1,7 billion euros and 78 million hours of traveling time. On top of that, […]
