Pedalling against Climate Change
15 organisations from Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Poland and Slovakia each developed 5-11 national and municipal policy recommendations for climate-friendly cycling policies as part of the Cyclurban project. All recommendations were accepted by the national authorities in the partner countries. The project has shown that despite common elements in the respective strategies, cities need to adapt existing methods and measures at the local level to make cycling a main pillar of climate-friendly mobility.
The European Railway Summit: living up to citizens’ expectations?
The ‘Europe On Rail’ project reflects on the hybrid European Railway Summit event that took place 21st of February 2022 and brought European actors of the rail sector together to discuss how rail can be the driver for greener and more innovative transport.
Promoting Bike-to-Public-Transport Intermodality
The Hinge project promotes the intermodality of cycling with public transport in Italy, Hungary and Romania.
This study by Forum Energii analyses several scenarios for the development of electromobility and the impact of their implementation on national distribution grids.
Three4Climate inspires zero emission trip across Europe
From the community
© Jens Ohlemeyer
How can you cover a distance of nearly 3,000 kilometers without local emissions to join a work exchange at the Algarve in the context of a climate protection project of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment? Right at the beginning of the Three4Climate project “Think European – Act local“, initiated by the three successive EU presidencies of Germany, Portugal and Slovenia, Tobias Dewald and Jens Ohlemeyer, the participating teachers from Friedrich-v. Bodelschwingh Grammar School in Bielefeld/Bethel, only had a vague idea of what kind of a challenge the answer to this question would be. Taking the European objective of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 very seriously, the two teachers from Bielefeld considered any kind of conventional travelling as inadequate and were convinced that they needed a wholistic and innovative approach for this trip. So they developed the challenging plan to undertake this long-distance journey with three different kinds of locally emission free means of transport: an electric car, the train and electric bicycles. The first 2,300 kilometers from Bielefeld (Germany) to the project partner school in Braga (Portugal) should be covered by travelling in an electric car (Mercedes-Benz EQV), having enough space to carry the two teachers and their school e-bikes. To go from Braga to Lisbon and then to Beja (another 500 kilometers), the train should be taken and finally from Beja to Loulé two of the electric bicycles from the Friedrich-v. Bodelschwingh Grammar School e-bike sharing scheme would be the final means of transport for the last 150 kilometers. The teachers linked the trip to the e-CROSS GERMANY mobility project which was started at Friedrich-v. Bodelschwingh Grammer School in 2010. With Three4Climate and e-CROSS GERMANY, the school participates in the programme “School of the Future” of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. On Friday, October 1st at 04.00 a.m., Tobias Dewald and Jens Ohlemeyer started the electric road trip in Bielefeld. They needed to stick to a very strict plan of accessing the available hyper power charging stations on their way to reach Braga in Portugal in time on Sunday. Fortunately all the HPCs (hyper charging stations) in Germany, Belgium and France worked flawlessly and recharged the battery from 10% to 100% in 45 to 60 minutes. In Brussels, Tobias Dewald and Jens Ohlemeyer, met with Katerina Fortun from the Climate Pact Secretary of the European Commission to hand over urgent demands of the Three4Climate students for more climate action by the European Union. On Sunday morning, October 3rd, the two teachers were welcomed from the partner school in Braga, and continued their journey by train to Porto and Lisbon, taking their e-bikes with them. On the comfortable train to Lisbon, they could also recharge their personal batteries after two days of travelling without much sleep. On the final day of the journey, Monday, October 4th, the teacher team took the train from Lisbon to Beja and cycled 50 kilometers from Beja to Aljustrel/Messejana to visit a large 13.9 MWp solar power plant (electricity for about 8,000 households) to show and communicate where our energy should come from and that our future is electric and emission free. From there it was another 100 Very happy with the successful emission free journey, Tobias Dewald and Jens Ohlemeyer were welcomed by the partner school in Loulé on Wednesday, October 6th, and worked together with the teachers from Braga on projects to reach climate neutrality in the EU by 2050. Vitor Aleixo, the mayor of Loulé/Salir, invited the mayor of Bielefeld, Pit Clausen, to Portugal to continue exchange The project schools of Braga, Loulé and Bielefeld will also continue their school cooperation beyond the Three4Climate project with official school partnerships for future projects, as the Three4Climate project was a huge success. A lot of inspiring ideas for effective climate protection measures were created with the call for expanding education for a sustainable development in schools. Strengthening the bonds between the participating three countries Portugal, Slovenia and Germany was another very important aspect of the project since new friendships across Europe developed and thrived.
The idea
From Bielefeld to Braga via electric car
From Braga to Beja by train
From Beja to Loulé by e-bike
kilometers by e-bike to Loulé at the Algarve coast. Due to the very hilly terrain at the Algarve and quite some luggage, the last part of the journey was rather exhausting despite the electric support of the bicycles. On top of that, 23 kilometers before the destination of Loulé, the first of the e-bike batteries went offline and 10 kilometers before Loulé, the second e-bike battery was empty.
Hungry and exhausted, but absolutely determined to reach their aim in the intended way by bicycle, the two teachers pushed their bikes with heavy luggage on the last 10 kilometers up the ascents of the Algarve hilly topography and arrived in Loulé at around 11 pm just before midnight.Cooperation to continue beyond the Three4Climate project
programs with young people from both countries and cities.
Project
Copyrights for pictures above: Jens Ohlemeyer
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The publication was published under the framework of EUKI project Int-E-Grid: Powering Electromobility in Poland and Germany and introduces strategies and appropriate measures for the implementation of effective policies to reduce emissions from transport through e-mobility.
EUKI Project Interview: Int-E-Grid – Powering Electromobility in Poland and Germany
Interview
©Mike Bird / Pexels
by GIZ/ EUKI
EUKI Project Interview: Int-E-Grid – Powering Electromobility in Poland and Germany
For our EUKI brochure, we spoke with Dr. Joanna Maćkowiak-Pandera from Forum Energii about the EUKI project Int-E-Grid: Powering Electromobility in Poland and Germany. The aim of the project is to promote and expand electromobility in the two countries by developing recommendations for central and local authorities as well as the business sector. The interview is part of the EUKI brochure published in 2021. Portrait Joanna Maćkowiak-Pandera, ©Forum Energii What is Int-E-Grid about? We want to limit emissions from transport and believe that electromobility is the most promising way to achieve this. But there are still many challenges to overcome, especially when it comes to the question of how to integrate electromobility into the power system. Int-E-Grid creates a space where Polish and German experts come together and develop solutions. For example, we held a large virtual meeting with 38 participants in June 2020, which resulted in five analysis papers. This enables participants to make much-needed recommendations to national and local politicians, helping them to ensure that grids are prepared and will be able to handle the predicted increase in electromobility. How do cities need to prepare their electric grids for electromobility? For example, there are currently very few charging stations in Polish and German cities. This means many people can only charge their cars at home, in the evenings. But this time of day is already a time of peak electrical consumption, especially in winter when people need to heat their homes. This is inefficient. If charging cars is added to this, cities would need to build new power plants to cover such a combined peak. That is something we want to avoid. We need to build charging infrastructure where needed so that people can charge their cars during the day -at their workplace or in city centres while shopping.
“We want to limit emissions from transport and believe that electromobility is the most promising way to achieve this.”
Why is a German-Polish partnership an especially suitable format for the project?
Poland and Germany have a lot in common. The amount of coal used in both countries is still large, so we have the common goal of decarbonisation. It is obvious that something big like the transition to electromobility will create challenges – and Germany and Poland are in a great position to tackle them together.
EUKI Project Interview: Living Streets
For our EUKI brochure, we spoke with Kinga Kovacs from Energy Cities about the EUKI project Living Streets. The project aims to involve citizens from Greece, Portugal and Croatia in solving energy and climate issues in their communities.
The second EUKI brochure presents all the projects funded since 2019, with clear information about the wide range of approaches to climate action in Europe. Find out more about the major milestones of the last two years, the steadily growing EUKI Academy and project successes in the various countries.
Climate Action Connecting Europe – EUKI Publishes its Second Brochure
News report
EUKI
by Oliver Hölcke, GIZ/EUKI
Climate Action Connecting Europe – EUKI Publishes its Second Brochure
The European Union’s strategic vision – to achieve a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 – shaped EUKI’s project work in 2019 and 2020. EUKI’s new brochure published on 29 July reveals just how strong this influence is. Since 2017, EUKI has been funding projects that advance the energy transformation across national borders and look for solutions to the global climate crisis. The organisation has so far launched 128 projects across Europe with funding amounting to EUR 32.6 million. Most of the projects help in achieving the EU’s climate goals by reducing energy consumption and thus bringing down greenhouse-gas emissions. This new brochure presents clear information about EUKI’s many and varied approaches to climate change mitigation – EUKI focuses on countries in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe and on the Baltic states.
This is precisely where EUKI’s Smart Climate Cities project operates. It is a strategy for using digital technologies in the cities and municipalities of the future to support the necessary social and ecological transformation so they can become climate-neutral by 2050.
Several EUKI projects are working to improve the information reaching the general public in Central and Eastern European countries on climate change mitigation topics. In Bulgaria, for example, school students have learned how to be more economical with energy. Not only has this improved energy efficiency in schools, but the subject is also going to be placed on the curriculum of other schools in Bulgaria. Other areas where EUKI is active have also developed successful approaches that are spreading throughout Europe.
EUKI has also constantly connected climate change activists at the public, municipal, civil society, economic and education policy level with one another and strengthened joint learning.
Dr Silke Karcher, Head of Division at BMU, says: ‘I see the great strides we have made in the climate protection sector, not just in discussions with local initiatives but also in cooperation measures with colleagues from other EU member states. Gone are the days when Europeans believed climate protection efforts were split into an Eastern and Western European camp. Climate protection has clearly become a joint project for all EU states. Of course, difficult discussions lie ahead but there is now a united front.’
This barrier-free PDF can be downloaded in German or English.