Freiburg im Breisgau, historic town in South-Western Germany, is known as an ecocity for its strong commitment to the environment. The city has nowadays reached high performances in cutting down the CO2 emissions, and today its solar, energy efficiency and transport programs are among the best in the world.

With reference to mobility policies, the municipality set long time ago consistent measures aiming at favouring means of transport other than cars, as making the old town centre car-free in 1973. Since 1991 there is a low cost “Environment ticket” for the regional bus service, and tramway lines were recently implemented. Pedestrians and cyclists have the primacy, car speeds is kept below 25 km/h and parking is possible away from the centres, or underground. There are over 500 km of bicycle paths and more than 5.000 bicycle parking spaces in the city, also at tram stops for commuters shifting from a means to another. As a consequence, motor vehicles’ use fell from 38% to 32% between 1982 and 1999, and around 30 – 35% of the residents have chosen to live without a car, while the trend in the other central European cities is opposite. Public transport use sees a 100% increase since 1980 and a third of all journeys are by bicycle.

Since the 80s Freiburg has developed a long-term and innovative vision on energy supply, seeking solutions to save energy, secure energy efficiency and develop renewable sources of energy. In particular following the resolution ‘Climate Protection Concept‘ passed in 1996, significative steps has been done to reduce CO2 emissions to 25% below the 1992 level by 2010.

Freiburg’s excellence is due to vanguard policy makers’ choices – a leading authority is Wulf Daseking, director of the city planning office who carried out relevant activities for the last twenty years – and also to a ‘bottom up’ approach, which involved the citizens’ participation through the large use of cooperatives in the design of communal spaces.

Other interesting initiatives in the field of energy include a Solar Institute, established in 1981, and a co-generation CHP steam and gas plant supplying almost 50% of the electricity. Concerning energy efficiency, since the 90s, municipal regulations request buildings to have a low energetic impact (in particular residential buildings are required to consume a third less than the standards set by German law). Housing is at relatively high densities, with mostly town houses & small shops, walkable neighbourhoods & high proportion of public space given over to nature.

As a result, over 10 years of CO2 emission have been reduced by more than 10% per capita. Furthermore, in 2003 34.1 million kWh p.a. of electricity from renewable sources replaced the same amount of climate-damaging electricity. Finally, with almost 700 people employed in the solar energy related activities, Freiburg is also at the forefront in shifting towards the ‘green economy’.

Related Links

• freiburg.de
• freiburg.de_GreenCity
• ecocity.wordpress.com
• messe-freiburg.de
• showcase.homesandcommunities.co.uk/case-study/ecotowns-freiburg-germany.html

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In the latest years a growing pressure has been exerted on cars manufacturers inside and outside Europe, as responsible for a growing share of CO2 equivalent emissions. However, automotive industry worldwide is making great efforts aiming at greening vehicle fleet and reducing the burden of cars on the environment.

In this line the International Federation of Automobile (FIA) launched an international environmental campaign called “Make cars green“, aiming at reducing the impact of motoring on the environment in 2008.

Several initiatives have also been taken by some car manufacturers worldwide going in the same direction, that is a reduction of GHG emissions and a growing energy efficiency of the engines. Remarkable steps have also been made on specific technologies such as electric and hybrid cars. Some governments have strongly invested in the expansion of LPG and methane filling stations network, and in providing incentives for car owners shifting to lower emissions vehicles. Possible policies and concrete initiatives are taking place in several regions, and a growing interest for testing low-carbon vehicles is to be found also in mountain regions.

Within the scope of application of the Alpine Convention, a private-public agreement was signed in the Principality of Monaco with the Nissan-Renault Alliance in 2009 to establish a network for recharging electric batteries of zero-emissions vehicles.

Is an increase of these types of solutions to be expected after the Copenhagen meeting which is taking place in December 2009?

We had the occasion to explore pros and cons of the available technologies in SWOMM 2008, where a specific focus was placed on the technological options for personal mobility. It would be worth analysing how things have been evolving since last year, and which actions might be delivered in mountain areas. Additionally, integrated planning seems capable to promote a model of city where intermediate solutions between private and public transport can be adopted (e.g. by means of the latest evolutions of cars, bikes and other vehicles’ sharing), where the freedom classically associated with private cars is gradually shifted to new types of public transport.

A fruitful discussion on this topic and on how things might change in a post-Kyoto more flexible perspective is likely to be raised in the afternoon session and during the round table of the 2009 SWOMM edition, where the participation of industry, governments and experts is foreseen.

Other articles you might find interesting:

Nissan-Renault lands in Monaco with EVs too
Green Week given taste of “Make Cars Green