Recently revised SUMP reference material focuses on decarbonising urban mobility to meet climate targets

In contrast to most other sectors, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from mobility have increased since 1990. With the transport sector representing 24% of total GHG emissions in the EU in 2021, and the share of GHG emissions from urban mobility between about 25 and 40% of total urban GHG emissions, decarbonising urban transport is vital to meet the EC target of climate neutrality by 2050. It will require both a rapid mobility and energy transition (including active travel and public transport use, plus electrification and other zero-carbon technologies) and, as such, carbon reduction efforts and broader urban transport and environmental objectives must be considered together to address urban mobility challenges.

The revised Regulation on the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) was also adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in June 2024, and one key target is that all 431 urban nodes along the TEN-T network will have to adopt and monitor Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) by 2027. A SUMP is a proven, established transport-focused, stakeholder dialogue-oriented framework to effectively tackle all common urban mobility challenges. They include safety, congestion, air and noise pollution and recently, quite prominently, also the fight against the impacts of mobility on climate change.

To support this, the European Commission has now published the 2024 revision to the SUMP reference material on "Decarbonisation of Urban Mobility", highlighting the importance of urban transport decarbonisation to meet climate targets and outlining how planners and decision makers can address urban mobility challenges whilst achieving carbon-neutrality targets.

This document is aimed at urban and regional mobility planners and decision-makers, to provide hands-onsupport on the alignment of SUMPs with climate neutrality objectives throughout their preparation process. It also includes references to measures that are to be part of the measure packages in SUMPs. Certain combinations of measures, so-called “big levers”, are introduced as these have been proven in many different cases to reduce transport-related carbon emissions significantly. Finally, it includes simple calculation methods and principles to evaluate SUMPs impacts in terms of GHG emissions (reduction).

Within the document, the “Avoid-Shift-Improve” paradigm is introduced to develop strategies and policy measures aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the SUMP cycle:

• Measures should avoid emissions through effective land-use planning to reduce trip frequency, distance and use of private cars in favour of public transport. 
• A shift to low carbon transport modes (namely active travel and public transport) should be incentivised through the density, quality, frequency and cost of services, whilst reducing convenience of private car use through urban vehicle access regulations (UVARs) such as access restrictions and road pricing, and parking availability and cost. 
• To improve in later revisions, measures developed in the SUMP must be monitored to assess overall effectiveness against GHG emission targets and to identify any implementation issues.

The reference material, originally published in December 2022, is a result of an EIB/JASPERS led joint effort of authors from EIB/JASPERS itself, Rupprecht Consult, University College London and VECTOS/SLR and contributors from the EC (in particular DGs Clima, MOVE and REGIO), Wuppertal Institute, Ministry of Transport Baden-Wuerttemberg, Fraunhofer Institute and TRT Trasporti e Territorio.

The full publication is available to read on the EU Urban Mobility Observatory website here.

This and additional SUMP reference materials on different thematic areas are available under the SUMP Expert Corner here.

Author: Andrew King

Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not reflect those of the European Commission.