The document signed by the Director of Greenpeace in Spain, Mario Rodríguez, and the Councilor for Traffic, Transport and Environment of Bilbao, Alfonso Gil, specifies that the City Council will incorporate the aforementioned objective in the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. The plan is currently being drafted and is scheduled to enter into force in 2017.

In fact, Greenpeace, in its report Transport in cities, presented in May, highlighted the lack of transport and mobility plans in Bilbao. The aim of the report was to highlight the impact of motor vehicles on climate change, in which 10% of the emissions of the Spanish state are due to mobility in cities, and to show the measures taken by the authorities of the most populated municipalities against it.

Bringing about changes in mobility policies

Greenpeace has managed to get a dozen cities, including Bilbao, to commit to halving their emissions. According to Mariano González, member of the ecological group, “normally in urban mobility planning there are no objectives related to climate change; we would like to see the plans of all cities converged in this sense.” Gonzalez believes that the compromise reached will force municipal authorities to make changes to their mobility policies.

Greenpeace believes that the 2030 target is perfectly reasonable and achievable if there is political will. “[As we said in the May report], this would require a reorientation of urban planning and mobility plans to reduce car transfers by at least a third, increase motor vehicle occupancy by between 15% and 30%, and increase transportation efficiency, including through electrification.”

Greenpeace has announced that the European Mobility Week is about to begin. The initiative will run from 16 to 22 September. The last day, 22, will be a day without a car.