April 26, 2024
Automotive supplier Continental has agreed to a 100 million euro fine imposed by prosecutors for its involvement in the notorious dieselgate emissions scandal. The fine was due to a “negligent breach of supervisory duties”, meaning the company undertook too little to inspect responsibility and managers for the supply of engine control units and related software […]
April 23, 2024
According to a study by the Federal Planning Office, the 2012 reform of the Flemish vehicle registration tax (BIV) led to a faster but small decrease in CO2 emissions from new passenger cars in Flanders. The additional impact of the Flemish reform of the annual circulation tax in 2016 and the premium for emission-free cars, […]
April 23, 2024
In Ghent, 63 cities, companies, and property developers have signed a ‘Green Deal for shared mobility’. Through the partnership, the participants commit to providing the necessary places for shared cars and bikes near homes. The ambition is to have 7,000 shared cars and 150,000 car sharers by 2027. Research shows that each shared car replaces […]
April 23, 2024
Luxembourg has completed its fourth tender call for charging infrastructure and has assigned funding to support the construction of 434 new charging points. Following the fourth call for projects to support companies investing in charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, the Luxembourg government has selected 34 projects to install 434 new charging points. The companies will […]
April 22, 2024
Low-cost airlines pollute more than ever, the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) denounces in a new report. All passenger flights taking off in Europe last year emitted as much CO2 as 80 million petrol cars in one year. However, airlines, according to the NGO fighting for more environmentally friendly transport, had to pay for less […]
April 18, 2024
The dredging works required for the construction of the new Scheldt tunnel for the Oosterweel connection have started in the Scheldt off the Antwerp port area. Specifically, this involves creating a temporary navigation channel so that ships can safely pass by the works and then a sinking trench so that the tunnel elements can be […]
April 17, 2024
French company Hype’s hydrogen taxis are coming to Brussels, according to the business newspaper L’Echo. To tackle the market in the Belgian capital, Hype notably acquired a stake in the local taxi company Mol-Tax. The company would also install its green hydrogen stations in Brussels. Second hydrogen taxi project in Brussels From 2025, all new […]
April 15, 2024
The Walloon government has approved the Mobi’Park project for public transport company TEC. The project involves developing a new bus depot in Tilleur, in the province of Liège. Philippe Henry (Ecolo), Walloon Minister of Mobility, says this will be the first electrified depot in Wallonia. A budget of 105 million euros has been allocated for […]
April 15, 2024
Ecolo, the French-speaking Green party in Belgium, remains behind its choice for 100 kph on motorways in Belgium. At the Flemish Green Party, the proposal is no longer to be found in the 2024 election program. Coalition partner Ecolo does want to go full steam ahead with it, writes the newspaper La Dernière Heure, but […]
April 12, 2024
In Paris, the bicycle has overtaken the car as a means of transport and is now behind walking and public transport. According to a survey by the Paris Region Institute (IPR), conducted at the request of some 15 public and private institutions, Parisians use bicycles more, chosen for 11,2% of intramural trips, than cars, with […]
April 05, 2024
The French-speaking Brussels socialist party PS wants the ban on diesel vehicles with emission class Euro 5, which will apply from January 2025, to be postponed for two years. The socio-liberal DéFI also wants a review of the low-emission zone (LEZ) rules. Energia, the former Belgian Petroleum Federation, in turn, wants the rules around the […]
April 04, 2024
The European Union wants to work on improving cycling infrastructure among its member states and wants to make (electric) cycling more attractive. This is stated in the “European Declaration on the Use of Bicycles,” signed by the EU’s three central legislative institutions on Wednesday. “Cycling has numerous benefits: it reduces pollution and traffic congestion and […]
April 02, 2024
Dutch energy provider Eneco no longer wants to invest in offshore wind farms. The energy company withdrew just when Belgium announced the conditions for a concession for a wind farm in the North Sea. The profitability of such installations is a problem. The risks are too big, so the company withdrew from the tender for […]
April 02, 2024
The granting of Brussels Airport Company’s new environmental permit is provoking opposed reactions. According to the citizen forum Burgerforum Luchthavenregio, the Flemish government has let down the residents of the surrounding municipalities around the airport. The Federal Ombudsman also feels that health and pollution have not been sufficiently considered. The Flemish liberal political party Open […]
April 01, 2024
Civil engineering company Jan De Nul, energy provider Engie, and worldwide expert in technical service Equans have launched a pilot project focusing on using Vanadium Redox Flow batteries on an industrial scale as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries. Belgian Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Groen), the CEOs of Engie Belgium, Equans Belux, and Jan […]
April 01, 2024
At North Sea Port Gent, railway operator Lineas presented its new FAME locomotive, which runs on used cooking oil. The FAME locomotive resembles a classic diesel variant but emits 85% less CO2 on unelectrified tracks. FAME stands for Fatty Acid Methyl Ester, and although waste-based FAME is already used in marine engines and simple combustion […]
March 26, 2024
Germany is starting to build the country’s largest battery factory for electric vehicles. The project will cost 4.5 billion euros and is led by Sweden’s Northvolt, one of Europe’s newly started companies specializing in the construction and development of batteries for electric cars. The factory will be built near Heide, a city of more than […]
March 26, 2024
Mobility organization Touring is calling for a moratorium on the Euro 5 ban in Brussels from January 2025. Tightening the allowable emissions standard in the Brussels Region would exclude 850,000 vehicles, including 700,000 passenger cars and 150,000 vans. Touring says a moratorium would encourage a smoother transition to EVs, pending a more diverse and affordable […]
March 21, 2024
The court in Amsterdam has condemned KLM for various misleading green claims in advertisements. According to the judges, the Dutch airline painted too rosy a picture of the beneficial effects of, for example, forest projects as CO2 compensation and the use of more sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The ruling states that such measures only marginally […]
March 21, 2024
Since its peak in 2007, the transport sector has decarbonized three times slower than the rest of the economy, and emissions continue to grow. European transport emissions have increased by over a quarter since 1990, while emissions across the wider economy are declining. A new study by Transport & Environment (T&E) shows that transport alone […]
March 21, 2024
President Joe Biden is pushing the American car industry toward reducing CO2 emissions by 50% in 2032 compared to 2026, as first announced last year in April. However, under pressure from carmakers and unions, he has allowed a more ‘lenient’ path to achieving that in the 2027-2030 period, with no longer stringent quotas for the […]
March 20, 2024
The period 2014-2023 was the warmest decade on record, exceeding the 1850-1900 average by 1.20°C. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “Earth’s issuing a distress call. Fossil fuel pollution is sending climate chaos off the charts.” The planet is on the brink of the abyss, the United Nations warns. Last year, in particular, was the hottest […]
March 19, 2024
Brussels Airport accounts for 5.41 billion in added value and more than 64,000 jobs. According to a study on the economic impact commissioned by Zaventem Airport, the Universities UAntwerpen and UCLouvain presented these results on Monday. Meanwhile, management and unions at Brussels Airlines also reached an agreement on Monday regarding better pay for cabin crew. […]
March 14, 2024
Belgian organic farmer Hugues Falys is taking TotalEnergies to court over the French oil company’s role in climate change. This is the first climate case against a multinational in Belgium. Several human rights and environmental organizations support the case, including Greenpeace and the International Federation for Human Rights. “The climate crisis has a huge impact […]
March 14, 2024
Walloon Environment Minister, Céline Tellier (Ecolo), has declared that the plan for Wallonia to become a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) was “disproportionate, difficult to apply and not very effective.” The Walloon LEZ is now axed, but major cities will be able to introduce restrictions to enhance air quality, not only on vehicles. Introduced in 2019, […]
March 12, 2024
After the sabotage attack, which led to a power outage and discontinuation of assembly, Tesla’s Grünheide factory is back online. Engineers from energy supplier Edis worked in three-shift mode to restore the connection and succeeded on Monday evening. “The measures to restart the plant are now running at full speed under all safety precautions,” wrote […]
March 07, 2024
According to Copernicus, the Earth Observation component of the European Union’s space program, the last three months have been the hottest worldwide. February was part of a series of nine consecutive monthly records, driven by continued greenhouse gas emissions and the El Niño weather phenomenon. In its latest monthly report, published on Thursday, the European […]
March 06, 2024
Colruyt Group has started using a 44-ton electric truck to supply city stores as sustainably as possible. The truck is quieter and generates fewer emissions, making deliveries less inconvenient for residents. Flemish Mobility Minister Lydia Peeters (Open Vld) officially inaugurated the refrigerated e-truck. “Using electric trucks for city deliveries is no longer a thing of […]
March 05, 2024
The Makro site in Machelen will be used as a storage facility for Tesla cars until the end of this year. Tesla is allowed to store a maximum of 1,400 cars there, pending further distribution to car dealers and buyers. “The site will also be monitored, insured, and maintained so that the nuisance will end,” […]
March 04, 2024
Last year, the rich countries had the lowest energy CO2 emissions in fifty years. Developed economies benefited from further wind and solar energy growth, swapped coal for gas more often, and saved on energy consumption. In a new report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) points out that countries must help weaker economies because the amount […]
March 01, 2024
This year, the hydrogen car builders at the technical university TU Delft want to set a new world record on public roads. They earlier set records, but in a different category. This time, they intend to build a car that must meet all requirements to be allowed on public roads. The Eco-Runner Team, as the […]
February 28, 2024
The Dutch grid operator Stedin calls charging station operators to switch off charging stations for electric cars between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., especially in urban areas. The Netherlands has more than half a million charging stations, two-thirds of which are on the street. If they are all switched on simultaneously at full power, the […]
February 27, 2024
The Roads and Traffic Agency (Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer, AWV) is building a bicycle bridge and an ecoduct over the Boslaan (N75) in Lanklaar (Limburg province). The new bicycle construction is part of the 5.5-km-long bicycle path through the Lanklaarderbos and will officially open by the end of April. The cycle paths are ready; only […]
February 26, 2024
Share organization Dégage!, with more than 6,000 members, calls in a memorandum for a favorable parking regime in Ghent that encourages people to share their cars. For example, it wants to make parking more expensive for non-shared cars. It also calls for increasing the number of shared cars in the city to 3,000 by 2030. […]
February 26, 2024
The number of bicycle paths along regional roads in Flanders that are in excellent or decent condition has increased slightly, by 3,3%, to 63,8%. This is according to the new bicycle paths report of the Agency for Roads and Traffic (Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer, AWV), which gives a picture of about 7,000 km of bicycle […]
February 22, 2024
The German Traffic Authority KBA (Kraftfahrt Bundesamt) has discovered that the emissions of toxic gases by some BMW diesel cars have been manipulated by illegal software. According to BMW, 33,000 X3 cars from 2014 or earlier are probably concerned in Germany alone; estimates for the EU are 100,000 to 150,000 in total. BMW says it […]
February 22, 2024
On Wednesday, Flemish Minister for Mobility Lydia Peeters (Open Vld) officially inaugurated Flanders’ largest plaza with fast-charging stations in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw (Flemish Brabant). The 18 fast-charging stations are located in Shopping Pajot’s parking lot in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, a popular shopping location with 24 stores. So, 18 electric cars can simultaneously recharge their batteries in half an hour […]
February 21, 2024
Flanders’ Christian Democratic party CD&V wants to phase out the low-emission zones. That is what party chairman Sammy Mahdi said during a debate at the Automotive eMotion Summit in the Skyhall, the former departure hall of Brussels Airport. According to Mahdi, these zones have proven successful in reducing the amount of air pollution. However, diesel […]
February 20, 2024
Researchers from the University of Oxford have discovered that Britain sends more polluting used cars to poorer countries than it does to scrapyards. The study found that legally exported used cars had 53% higher emissions of nitrogen oxides per kilometer – key health-harming air pollutants – than those that were scrapped instead. It also warned […]
February 20, 2024
Brussels Airport has started installing additional solar panels on the roofs of the newest Brucargo buildings, the cargo zone of Zaventem’s airport. The extra panels will cover a surface of 65,000 square meters or roughly the equivalent of nine soccer fields. They must double the share of solar energy in the airport operator’s own energy […]
February 19, 2024
Just 17% of electric cars sold in Europe are compact vehicles in the cheaper B segment, compared to 37% of new combustion engines, a new analysis finds. Carmakers are slowing EV adoption by prioritizing sales of larger, more expensive electric cars, according to Transport & Environment (T&E), which conducted the research. According to the report, […]
February 15, 2024
Official figures in the UK from the Environment Department (Defra) show that the increase in wood burners in homes and the use of biomass in industry has offset cuts in pollution from cars. Statistics reveal that polluting particulate matter (PM), a variety of small and toxic substances that can enter the bloodstream and severely impact […]
February 13, 2024
In France, the social leasing plan, a state measure to give less fortunate people access to an EV for 100 euros a month, has already run out of budget. The scheme is discontinued after more than 50,000 validated orders in six weeks, or almost double what was initially planned. The Elysée Palace announced that the […]
February 12, 2024
On Friday, the Flemish government finally agreed to adjust the premium for electric cars: the bonus can only be applied for 2024 and not for three years, as previously announced. Whether the aid will continue after 2024 will be up to the new government, as elections are due in June 2024. The premiums remain the […]
February 09, 2024
Volvo Cars is building a new center for mobility innovations in Torslanda near Gothenburg. With this facility, Volvo wants to take new technologies out of the laboratory environment and test them in a realistic way. Volvo describes the new center, ‘ Mobility Innovation Destination Torslanda’, as a tailor-made test field for automotive development near the […]
February 09, 2024
Dutch beer giant Heineken has engaged Swedish Einride, a specialized transport company in electric and remote-controlled trucks, to start delivering daily to its German distribution center in Duisburg from its brewery in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, by electric Mercedes eActros 300 trucks. These trucks will cover some 540 km each daily, driven by a human […]
February 08, 2024
The European Investment Bank will grant Belgian Umicore an eight-year loan of 350 million euros for research. The money is intended for the technological development, innovation, and recycling of batteries for e-cars. In 2022, Umicore invested 316 million euros, or 7,6% of its revenues, in research and development. Umicore’s battery materials technologies, innovation roadmap, and […]
February 07, 2024
More than 30 organizations have signed the ‘Inclusive Car-sharing’ Green Deal in Brussels, a charter to expand car sharing as a sustainable mobility alternative by giving access to it to as many Brussels residents as possible, regardless of their specific needs. This is an initiative of Brussels Environment and Mobility Ministers Alain Aaron (Ecolo) and […]
February 07, 2024
According to the plans presented on Tuesday, the European Commission wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union by 90% by 2040 compared to 1990 levels. “There’s no other way,” says Wopke Hoekstra, European Commissioner for Climate Action. “The longer the EU waits to take difficult measures, the harder and more expensive it […]
February 06, 2024
The Council of State is sharply critical of the Flemish government’s draft decision on a premium for the purchase of an electric car. The Council has problems with the ‘first come, first served’ principle and fears due to the limited budget also a possible reduction of the premium in case of too much demand. The […]
February 05, 2024
Over 54% of Parisians voted in a referendum to support a proposal by Mayor Anne Hidalgo to triple the parking fee for SUVs, including hybrid and electric cars weighing more than 1,6 and 2 tons, respectively. The vote managed to mobilize only 5,68% of voters or 78,000 Parisians. Under the plan, parking fees for visitors […]
February 02, 2024
The Brussels government is going to increase the Bruxell’Air premium. The increase should encourage Brussels residents to eliminate their number plates and switch to more sustainable transport. In Ghent, you can also get a premium if your number plate is scrapped. Last year, the city received over 200 applications for a 500-euro compensation. On the […]
February 01, 2024
A new study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) indicates that the gap between real-world and official CO2 emission and fuel consumption values of new combustion engine cars increased from 8% to 14% between 2018 and 2022. The average gap, or divergence, between the official and real-world fuel consumption and CO2 emission values […]
January 31, 2024
The University of Ghent has appointed Meredith Glaser as an academic expert for more and safer bicycle traffic. Glaser is an internationally respected academic with approximately 15 years of experience in spatial planning, transport, and mobility. She will further specialize in everything related to cycling. Meredith Glaser is originally from the Californian coast but has […]
January 30, 2024
Car sharing is increasingly popular in Louvain. In the last four years, the number of users has increased by 80%. However, Poppy discontinued service after only three months. In the meantime, newcomer BattMobility hopes to fill the gap. BattMobility only offers electric shared cars with a fixed parking space, a significant difference from Poppy’s concept. […]
January 29, 2024
The Flemish government has approved the Regional Spatial Implementation Plan for the northern part of the Ring Road around Brussels, bringing a 550-million-euro remodeling a step closer. Flanders wants to make the R0-North between Sint-Stevens-Woluwe and Groot-Bijgaarden more traffic-safe and increase the area’s livability. In the spring of 2023, a public inquiry on the provisional […]
January 29, 2024
At the shipyard of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HD HHI) in Ulsan, South Korea, the world’s first vessel on ‘green methanol’ carrying up to 16 592 twenty-feet shipping containers (TEU) has been baptized ‘Ane Mærsk’. At the beginning of February, it will enter service connecting Asia and Europe The 350-meter-long vessel is Mærsk’s second container […]
January 26, 2024
A new direct railway line now connects the ports of Genk and Zeebrugge. On an annual basis, this will take some 12 000 trucks carrying containers off the road. “The rail connection promises significant benefits in terms of mobility and sustainability,” says Heike Ulburghs, General Manager of the Port of Genk. Flanders is making 200 […]
January 25, 2024
“Despite lofty ambitions and strict requirements, most passenger cars on EU roads still emit the same quantity of CO2 as 12 years ago,” the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said in a statement. A top EU auditor reported on Wednesday that sales of electric cars in the European Union are not growing fast enough to […]
January 24, 2024
The French oil and gas group TotalEnergies has signed a deal with Danish sustainable energy company European Energy for a majority stake in two wind projects. Under the arrangement, TotalEnergies will take an 85% stake in the Jammerland Bugt project (240 MW), and 72,2% in the Lillebaelt South nearshore development (165 MW), both in Danish […]
