Cities work together to find solutions for low-emission mobility

Transport accounts for about one-fifth of Finland’s climate emissions. A large proportion of the emissions originate in cities, so they should also take responsibility for reducing emissions. One way of doing this is to reduce car traffic. This is done by encouraging people to move on foot, by bike or by public transport, for example, rather than their own car, or at least to choose an electric car over a petrol or diesel car.

The cities of Espoo, Tampere, Turku, and Oulu have a joint project: “Low-carbon transport in mobility hubs”. Mobility hubs are urban centres with many people moving around and strong public transport. As such, they also offer opportunities to develop and try out new mobility services that produce as little emissions as possible.

Sustainable future, but also new business

New services also create new business. According to some estimates, the global business of mobility services could be worth hundreds of billions of euros in the future.

The main objective of the “Low-carbon transport in mobility hubs” project is to improve business opportunities for companies in the sector. While cities contribute to their own sustainable development goals, the companies conducting pilots as their partners develop

  • new mobility services
  • combinations of multiple modes of travel
  • parking systems
  • electric vehicles, such as bicycles, scooters, mopeds, or cars
  • autonomous bus transport.

Part of the Six-City Strategy work of the six largest cities

The City of Espoo is the main partner of the project. The other organisations involved in the project are Business Tampere, the City of Oulu, Turku University of Applied Sciences, and the City of Turku.

The “Low-carbon transport in mobility hubs” project is part of the Six-City Strategy. The strategy is implemented by the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Turku, and Oulu, the six largest cities in Finland.

The aim of the Six-City Strategy is to develop better services in cities and create new competence, business, and jobs in Finland. The Six-City Strategy work will continue with EU funding until the end of 2022.

The six largest cities have also committed to the National Growth Programme for the Transport Sector 2018–2022. The measures taken in this project are in line with the objectives of the growth programme.