Mr. McGuire, Sustainable Mobility in Mountain Areas – 13 July 2010

admin — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:59:48 +0000

On 13 July 2010, the Coordinator of the Mountain Partnership Mr. Douglas McGuire will give a speech at 12:45 on “Sustainable Mobility in Mountain Areas”, at FAO Headquarters in Rome. The speech will introduce the Joint Session of the Partners Meetings of two European projects, TRANSITECTS and AlpCheck2.

Both the projects address transport issues and aim to improve sustainability within mountain areas. They have been co-financed with European funds in the framework of the Alpine Space Programme.

Agenda of the Joint Session of the TRANSITECTS & AlpCheck 2 Projects

Rome – Tuesday, 13 July 2010 – FAO Headquarters, Nigeria & Ethiopia Room

TRANSITECTS – Ethiopia Room		AlpCheck 2 – Nigeria Room
09:00 – 9:15	Summary of the first day provided by LKZ	9:45 – 10:00	Opening of works
09:15 – 10:00	WP 5 Pilot activities by ALOT and PPs	10:00 – 11:00	Report on the advancing of the different WPs (WP4 – WP5 – WP6) activities with respect to the guidelines and outcomes achieved during the Venice meeting in anticipation of the October Mid Term Conference
10:00 – 11:00	Outlook WP 5 – Future activities until milestone 2 by ALOT and PPs	11:00– 11:15	Coffee Break
11:00 – 11:30	Coffee break	11:15 –12:00	Analysis of difficulties and solutions
11:30 – 12:15	WP 7 Pilot activities by bmvit, Tyrol, RV	12:00 –12:30	Presentation by the Ministry for the Environment of a strategy on how to pursue possible synergies with other projects and related discussion
12:15 – 12:45	Outlook WP 7 – Future activities until milestone 2 by bmvit, Tyrol, RV	12:30 – 12:45	Transfer from the Nigeria to the Ethiopia Room
12:45 – 13:15	“Presentation on sustainable mobility in mountain areas” by Mr. Douglas McGuire, Coordinator of the Mountain Partnership.
13:15 – 14:30	Lunch break
14:30 – 17:00	Preparation of the WP7 cross-fertilization workshop by DV, LKZ, PPs, AlpCheck 2 experts and other guests

For further information on the meeting send an email to: sara.maulo@fao.org.

Africa is opening to cutting-edge technologies for mobility with Solaris Elettra, the new Ethiopian electric car

SaraM — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:47:17 +0000

The Company “Freestyle PLC” is launching Solaris Elettra, an electric car for Ethiopia. In fact, the production and sale of the two versions of Solaris Elettra (costing around $12,000 and $15,000) will take place in Addis Ababa. The cars will finally take off for Africa and Europe’s markets.

The question is if Africa with its electricity shortages, low level of wealth per capita and poor infrastructure endowment, is ready for the production and spread of electric cars.

According to the general manager of Freestyle PLC, Carlo Pironti, Ethiopia’s electricity shortages were not an obstacle, as in the future the power supply should strongly increase. Furthermore, the manager underlines that Solaris Elettra can be recharged by generator and solar power.
To face customers’ budgetary problems, Mr Pironti says that his company will develop a credit system for people unable to afford the cost of Solaris Elettra: indeed Ethiopian taxes on cars could be very high and average salaries are low.

Wayne Batty, senior writer at South Africa’s Topcar magazine, points out that by now electric cars may be reserved for short trips (40 to 50 km), since infrastructure and recharging points are still lacking across African countries.

Ethiopia is the second African country, after South Africa, involved in the production and promotion of an electric car. With the recent Rwanda’s launch of a bio-diesel bus, Africa is demonstrating a strong interest in cutting-edge technologies for sustainable mobility.

Electric car launched in Ethiopia despite electricity shortages (news.bbc.co.uk)

SWOMM » Ethiopia

Mr. McGuire, Sustainable Mobility in Mountain Areas – 13 July 2010

Africa is opening to cutting-edge technologies for mobility with Solaris Elettra, the new Ethiopian electric car

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