February 07, 2020
The Flemish government no longer wants to admit polluting mopeds and scooters to the low-emission zones (LEZ) of, for example, Ghent and Antwerp. But the problem is that it doesn’t know how to realize this, as there is no inventory of the environmental performance of these vehicles. In recent years, moped owners have been forced […]
February 05, 2020
In spite of the 70% planned increase in air traffic, the British air industry sets an ambitious zero carbon target for 2050. This plan is being driven by the organization Sustainable Aviation. Cleaner airplanes and carbon offset are the cornerstones of the project. After the ‘flygskam’ or ‘flying shame’ emerging from the Scandinavian countries, the […]
February 05, 2020
German vehicle manufacturer, Daimler, has announced that it will no longer develop new internal combustion engines (ICE) for passenger cars. Instead, it will concentrate on battery technology and electric motors. It was the Head of Development, Markus Schäfer, who declared that there were no development projects anymore for future ICE. Emission rules and fiscal measures, […]
February 05, 2020
The British publicity watchdog, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), condemns Ryanair for a campaign, in which the Irish budget airline had positioned itself in the market as “the company with the lowest emissions in Europe”. Lowest emissions? “Everybody knows Ryanair has the lowest tariffs,” the campaign said, “but did you know it’s also the airline with […]
February 05, 2020
Britain is going to ban – ‘subject to consultation’ – the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars, even hybrids by 2035. That’s five years earlier than initially planned and it can be even sooner, if feasible. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK has a responsibility to compensate for the historic CO2 emissions of […]
February 04, 2020
The municipality of Hoogeveen is going to build the first hydrogen-powered housing project in The Netherlands, called Van der Veen home zone. The project will consist of about a hundred houses, and the construction works will start by the end of 2020 to be ready by 2023. Hydrogen-heated homes The installation of technical hydrogen systems […]
February 04, 2020
In its annual report on Belgium, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sees room for a CO2 tax and road-pricing. In this context, OECD senior executive, Angel Gurria, points to international tendencies whereby countries reduce corporation tax and tax on labor because that is good for stimulating economic growth, but, on the other […]
February 04, 2020
According to a study by Swiss business bank UBS, a price war on plug-in hybrids (PHEV) is a serious risk in 2020, as car manufacturers will struggle to comply by the end of 2020 with the EU’s stricter CO2 emission rules. The bank’s analyst warns that carmakers “will likely need to push PHEVs to their […]
February 04, 2020
In 2015, Ghent Alderman for Mobility, Filip Watteeuw (Groen) launched the ambitious plan to have 20.000 shared cars by 2020. Today, five years later, his project apparently was too ambitious. In the meantime, there are more than enough cars, but the infrastructure is lagging. Ambitious goal In Ghent, the number of drivers willing to share […]
February 03, 2020
Flemish newspaper De Morgen interviewed Frans Timmermans, ‘Mister climate’ of the European Commission, about the European Green Deal. Timmermans does not see the Green Deal as a fixed plan, but rather as a guideline with the ultimate goal of climate neutrality by 2050. For Timmermans, the Green Deal combines three major challenges in Europe: the […]
February 03, 2020
Running an engine on iron power, turning it into rust by burning it and extracting a load of energy out of it this way to move a vessel with 15.000 containers; it is theoretically possible. And the good thing is: there are no CO2 emissions, and the rust can be captured and turned into iron […]
February 03, 2020
Belgian drivers are devoted to their cars, even for short distances. That is the conclusion of the mobility barometer of traffic safety institute Vias. The organization also launches a call “to cover short distances on foot or by bike”. “It’s a small effort, but it has a large effect, also on one’s health.” Mobility behavior […]
February 03, 2020
At the beginning of the year, the city of Ghent introduced a low-emission zone, but still tolerated offenders the first month. As of February 1st, drivers with old, polluting (diesel) cars will be fined. During the transition period, an average of 584 offenders got caught. More than 95% of Belgian drivers were in accordance with […]
January 31, 2020
The Ghent blogger and cycling enthusiast Dries Robberechts has created a map of Ghent that shows the travel time between various locations. The maps, taken from Google maps, allows the user to calculate what his time savings will be if he travels the route by bicycle instead of by car. With this project, Robbrechts follows […]
January 31, 2020
German automotive supplier Bosch has presented in Feuerbach near Stuttgart (Germany) its new fuel cell stacks for trucks and cars, developed with Swedish PowerCell. American electric truck builder Nikola is the first to order it for its H2, along with a ‘non-disclosed’ carmaker. Fuel cell technology, based on (green) hydrogen, is considered an alternative to […]
January 30, 2020
Norway’s biggest oil company and energy supplier, Equinor, the former Statoil, wants to cut CO2 emissions together with other companies in the oil and gas industry with 40% by 2030 to become CO2-neutral by 2050. Equinor claims that by doing this, in 2030, Norway’s total CO2 emissions will be reduced by 10% already. That’s to […]
January 30, 2020
For the second, consecutive time Tesla has registered a benefit in the last quarter of 2019. The net benefit turned out to be 105 million euros, and the equity rose with 1 billion dollars. Tesla now has approximately 6,3 billion dollars available. A few weeks ago, the estimated market value surpassed 100 billion dollars. The […]
January 30, 2020
Mobility Club VAB advises Belgian cities and municipalities not to introduce new low-emission zones (LEZ), for the time being. There are still too many uncertainties, they say. Measurements taken by the Flemish Environment Agency show that the impact on air quality is not convincing, especially when it comes to nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Consequently, according to […]
January 29, 2020
The French government has launched a ‘call of interest’ to the industry to set up a national bio-kerosine production, five times the size of Total’s current bio-refinery La Mède. It wants to push aviation to use 2% of bio-kerosine by 2025, 5% by 2030, and 50% by 2050, compared to 0,1% today. France is likely […]
January 28, 2020
While the price of cobalt has decreased due to an over-offer on the market, car manufacturers are nevertheless negotiating multi-year contracts to secure supplies. Tesla, for example, is negotiating with Glencore for its cobalt supply, like BMW already did. But why are manufacturers trying to secure a material that seems abundant? According to George Heppel, […]
January 28, 2020
The Port of Ostend and two partners, dredger DEME and the Flemisch investment trust PMV are planning a 50 MW ‘green’ hydrogen plant by 2022, to result in a 300 MW installation by 2025. ‘Hyport’ is to convert surplus electricity of offshore wind parks into hydrogen both for energy backup as for transport use. The […]
January 28, 2020
“If we want to keep the existing nuclear power plants open after 2020, it is time for action,” warns the CEO of Electrabel, Philippe Van Troeye, in a press release, in which he presents the 2020 plans for the company. Environmental effects As of 2021, it will become very difficult to keep them open due […]
January 28, 2020
Last year, the city of Antwerp caught 20.774 Belgian drivers for entering the low-emission zone with an unauthorized vehicle. The number of infringers more than halved compared to the 42.455 the year before. In 2019, only 0,25% of all Belgian cars were offenders. Whether the number of foreign infringers has reduced is not clear. Fewer […]
January 27, 2020
Can e-fuels or synthetic fuels based on ‘green hydrogen’ keep the combustion engine alive in the future? In theory, it looks promising, but being twice as expensive as fossil fuels today, it will be hard to find an economical business case. The petrochemical industry is very much in favor: it is a question of survival […]
January 27, 2020
The city of Mechelen is planning to introduce a shared cargo bike platform by the end of this year. The first two e-models were launched on Saturday for a test ride at the presentation of a regional vegetal garden on the median strip. Mobility solution The Cargoroo bikes, as they are called, will be parked […]
January 24, 2020
On Thursday European Union published the ranking of the Member States for renewable energy. Especially the traditional industrial countries in the core of Europe – the Benelux, France, Germany, the UK, but also Poland – are failing well. A serious leap is still needed there to achieve the EU’s 2020 targets: a 20% share of […]
January 24, 2020
This week, we already mentioned Mitsubishi and Daimler concerning possible diesel emission fraud. Today, we can add Jeep, Suzuki, and Volvo to the list. Dieselgate is not gone yet. The Dutch road traffic service, RDW, responsible for vehicle registration, has already noted in 2017 that there was possibly something wrong with the emission treatment of […]
January 24, 2020
The speed reduction from 120 km/hour to 100 km/hour on the Brussels ring-road will be introduced before the end of 2020. That is what the Minister of Mobility and Public Works, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), announced in the Flemish Parliament on Thursday. Air quality The speed reduction is one of the 350 measures of the […]
January 23, 2020
ACEA, the association of 16 European car manufacturers, predicts that the European car market will recede by 2,0% in 2020. This will be the first time in seven years. “We stand before a shrinking market,” says newly appointed ACEA president, Mike Manley, also the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobile. In 2019, the market still progressed […]
January 23, 2020
The German daughters of Dutch Gasunie and grid operator Tennet are joining forces with gas manager Thyssengas to build a 100 MW power-to-gas hydrogen plant in Diele, near the Dutch border. When operational in 2022, it should be one of Germany’s biggest hydrogen operations. The location for the so-called ‘Element Eins’ project was chosen after […]
January 23, 2020
The consequences of ‘dieselgate’ are still looming everywhere. Especially the German car manufacturers are suffering from it. Daimler foresees a further 1,5 billion euros of additional costs, Volkswagen has been condemned to a 135-million-euro fine in Canada. On Wednesday, we were talking about Mitsubishi under investigation by German justice; now the bad news is returning […]
January 23, 2020
The so-called ‘Abacus Project’ or ‘Counting Frame Project’ (Telraam in Dutch), an initiative of Transport & Mobility Louvain, Mobiel, and Waanz.in, wants to create its own company structure within two or three months. ‘Counting window’ A ‘counting frame’ or ‘counting window’ is a digitized system with sensors and a camera to measure traffic in real-time. […]
January 22, 2020
German justice has carried out a series of searches in different locations for suspected diesel fraud. The cars concerned were produced by the Mitsubishi group. Ten different locations were searched, among them company offices of Mitsubishi. The prosecutor’s office has declared that “there are presumptions that cars (of Mitsubishi) are equipped with a fraud software […]
January 22, 2020
Belgian Interparking is equipping several major Brussels’ underground parking garages with air cleaning technology that makes the air actually better than outdoors. The system filters 7.500 cubic meters of air per hour, removing up to 70% of particles. Interparking is Europe’s third-largest parking operator active in nine countries and one of the first to invest […]
January 21, 2020
The arrival of the Nightjet, the night train connection between Brussels and Vienna, has aroused a lot of interest. There is not only the mobility and ecological aspect, according to action groups, but the climate impact of such a night train is also eleven times smaller than the impact of the same journey by plane. […]
January 21, 2020
European Commissioner Johannes Hahn estimates that the European ‘Green Deal’ will cost at least 1.000 billion euros. He now has to convince the European finance ministers of the ‘Sustainable Europe Investment Plan’. That plan is the investment structure of the ‘Green Deal’ that was proposed in December. To achieve its main goal, a climate-neutral Europe […]
January 20, 2020
After a joint tender, three Dutch provinces, Noord-Holland, Flevoland, and Utrecht, are ordering 20.000 additional public charging stations on top of the 5.000 installed today. The Netherlands is a worldwide forerunner in public chargers and counts on needing two million of them by 2030. The order was announced on Monday by MRA-E (Metropool Regio Amsterdam […]
January 20, 2020
The Belgian bicycle show Velofollies that opened its doors on Friday for the public is drawing the attention of the Dutch. Especially the leased ‘company’ bike is an eye-catcher for our northern neighbors. ‘Bicycle country’ “Although The Netherlands has a reputation as ‘bicycle country’, more Belgians are commuting by a leased company bike,” said Ilse […]
January 17, 2020
Consulting firm KPMG pushes its employees to swap their company cars for more environmentally friendly solutions. From February 1st, every employee taking the step will get 10 euros per day of mobility budget to be reinvested in mobility solution subscriptions. With this incentive, the company hopes to reduce its CO2 emissions by 350 tons. Worldwide […]
January 17, 2020
On Wednesday, the city of Bruges has launched its first electric tourist boat. The ceremony took place near the Gruuthuse company along the Dijver watercourse. It is the first boat in a series of five that have to replace a fleet of diesel vessels. No emissions, no odors The electric boat is nine-meter-long and has […]
January 16, 2020
An electric car has a smaller ecological footprint than a car with an internal combustion engine. However, the critical question is whether there will be enough electricity in the future to charge these cars. For example, is the Brussels electricity network capable of supplying the electricity that a new fleet would require? According to the […]
January 16, 2020
The cameras of the newly introduced low-emission zone in Ghent registered 5.072 offenders during the first week of January. They will not be fined yet; they’ll just get a warning. Fines of 150 euros will be imposed as of February. The introduction of the measure was announced last year. Transition period The high number of […]
January 15, 2020
Rumour has it that General Motors is considering taking this ultimate off-road vehicle back into production. With an electric motor, it’s true, but still far from energy-efficient. Energy crisis The Hummer made its debut during the first Iraq war, and also remained an armored menace when it was introduced on the road in 1992. When […]
January 15, 2020
Belgian grocery discounter chain, Colruyt, is setting up an experiment with ‘neighbors’ delivering groceries to other ‘neighbors’, minimizing this way the ecological footprint of home delivery. The idea is to provide a platform where someone from your district goes shopping for you with your grocery list and brings the goods at your doorstep for a […]
January 15, 2020
Metaforum, the interdisciplinary think tank of the KU Louvain, has published its vision on sustainable and feasible energy and climate policy. The text ‘Sustainable Energy Provision for Belgium’ sides with the Paris climate agreement and the European Green Deal and works out how Belgium can contribute. Renewable energy The authors of the text took up […]
January 14, 2020
The Danish company GreenMobility, which operates electric car-sharing services in Copenhagen and Aarhus, becomes active in Antwerp in April. Brussels and Ghent would follow. The company will set up its services in Antwerp in a joint venture with local partner Deurnese Transportmaatschappij (DTM), Green Mobility reported in a press release on Monday. GreenMobility will start […]
January 14, 2020
A massive switch to electric cars in Belgium will inevitably lead to electric car taxation. That’s the opinion of a number of experts. Most think road-pricing will be used to do so. Others fear the electricity used to charge cars will be taxed. In 2018, the state raised 8,6 billion euros in excise duties and […]
January 14, 2020
The number of speed pedelecs on the Belgian roads increased significantly in 2019. More and more people consider the fast-riding bikes an alternative for their second car. According to the service for vehicle registrations (Dienst voor Inschrijvingen Voertuigen, DIV), last year, 13.416 speed pedelecs were registered or 40% more than the year before (9.364). In […]
January 13, 2020
Researchers at the Technology University Eindhoven want to use iron as a fuel because no CO2 is released during combustion, and the powder can be endlessly recycled. Iron powder like a charged battery Professors Niels Deen and Philip de Goey (TU Eindhoven), together with Mark Verhagen, manager of Team SOLID, have built a pilot plant […]
January 13, 2020
For most private users, a diesel car is no longer economically interesting. This is the conclusion of the mobility association, VAB, based on a new budget test. As a result of this ‘diesel anxiety’, second-hand gasoline cars have become 22% more expensive in two years. “Hardly anyone wants a diesel that is no longer allowed […]
January 13, 2020
A test from the Flemish public television has shown that CNG is not the most eco-friendly fuel to run a car on. Considering toxic exhaust gases, it’s still good, but climate-wise it seems that there is a bigger problem than expected. The test has been executed together with several academic experts and a test lab […]
January 13, 2020
Speed controls with mobile speed cameras have become useless in The Netherlands due to the popular app, Flitsmeister, that allows drivers to warn each other for speed controls. Last year, there were more controls but 10% fewer fines, according to an analysis of the Flitsmeister’s data. Hardly any fines anymore Public services are worried because […]
January 10, 2020
According to HR organization Acerta, 0,6% of the Belgian company car fleet currently has electric propulsion. There is still a lack of infrastructure, although in the near future car taxation will discourage internal combustion engines and promote electric propulsion. Switch from diesel to gasoline Acerta publishes these figures based on an analysis of more than […]
January 10, 2020
The city of Utrecht, together with Amsterdam, is determined to ban the car from their city centers. On Thursday, local authorities of Utrecht and several project developers signed an agreement for an experimental but ambitious housing project along the Merwede Channel. The project is meant to become the first (almost) car-free zone in the Netherlands. […]
January 09, 2020
The Uber taxi app indicates that from now on it will be active in Belgium not only in Brussels, but also in Louvain, and Namur. In a reaction, the Bond Beter Leefmilieu (BBL) asks Uber to opt for 100% electric vehicles and to cooperate with public transport instead of competing with it. Low-cost taxi service […]
January 09, 2020
Car sharing is a good idea, but how much does it cost? Until a few years ago, the situation was clear. If you needed a shared car, there was Cambio. Period. Meanwhile, however, the Flemish driver can choose between several tens of alternatives, each with their specific formula, says Jeffrey Matthijs of Autodelen.net, an independent […]
January 09, 2020
The amount borrowed by Belgians for their new car has increased by 17% in five years. Last year, Belgians borrowed an average of 15.400 euros to buy a car. According to Belfius Bank’s figures, this amount was 19.200 euros for a new car, and 12.500 euros for a second-hand one. This is 17% more than […]
January 09, 2020
According to Transport and Logistic in Flanders (Transport en Logistiek Vlaanderen, TLV), the idea of the Belgian fashion chain, JBC, to have parcels returned by commuters is illegal. The professional association that represents 1.500 Flemish transport companies considers juridic actions when the fashion store continues its plans. On Tuesday, JBC announced it is going to […]
January 08, 2020
Seven Belgian federations are joining forces to set up a so-called ‘Low Emission Mobility Platform’ to exchange knowledge and to boost the breakthrough of sustainable technology in the mobility sector. Priority will be the roll-out of EV charging infrastructure and further development of hydrogen and green gas, the parties state in a press release. The […]
January 08, 2020
Last year, the total consumption of electricity in Belgium decreased by 3%. In 2019, consumption was 84,7 terawatt-hours or the lowest level since 2014. Older figures are not available. Decreasing consumption “We have seen a decline in the energy consumption for some years now,” says Elia spokeswoman, Marleen Vanhecke. “Especially the industry has improved its […]
