A series of expert workshops on the future of public transport and the draft of a strategy for the reduction of gas emissions were organized in Nicosia between November 2021 -February 2022.
The workshops were organized by University College London (UCL), AECOM (a transport consulting company) and the Cyprus University of Technology.
A press release sent to Cyprus News Agency by the British High Commission, which supported the workshops, says that the initiative was taken based on the latest environmental statistics, published in Eurostat, according to which Cyprus, is the country with the 3rd smallest population in the European Union (EU), however has the third highest percentage of purchase of private vehicles (645 cars per 1000 inhabitants) and holds the sixth highest position in the EU emissions (> 10 tons “per capita emissions in 2019).
The workshops took place in the framework of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26) last November. Topics covered, inter alia, the urban mobility of the future and the development of a strategy to attract citizens to sustainable transport.
The participants agreed that changing the legal framework related to transport, the education system and project funding priorities is imperative for the success of a vision for sustainable mobility. The results will be forwarded to the relevant services and could be used as a guide for the development of a more comprehensive action plan.
The workshops were led by Professor Nick Tyler of UCL and Dr. Xenia Karekla of AECOM.
Experts in sustainable urban mobility and the development of mobility strategies. Dr. Stelios Yiatros and Dr. Alexandros Charalambides from CUT, other experts in the implementation of innovative methods in engineering and in the development of policy frameworks focused on climate change, also attended.
(CNA)
