Last stop! POLIS present at the Clean Bus Europe Platform Final Event

On the 6 and 7 June 2023, POLIS was present at the Clean Bus Europe Platform Final Event at the UITP Summit, in Barcelona.

The Clean Bus Europe Platform (CBEP) Bus Forum gathered CBEP partners and friends to share project results and lessons learned. Besides POLIS and the Project Partners UITP, Rupprecht Consult, FIT Consult and Sphera, we also heard the inspiring stories of the Target cities of Coimbra, Norrköping, Tyne & Wear and San Sebastian - these public authorities shared their achievements in the deployment of Clean Buses, the challenges and opportunities, and the next steps, including becoming possible Host Cities in future developments.

Cities and Regions need to be ready for the decarbonisation of their Public Transport fleets, as recently the European Commission has proposed new CO2 standards for Heavy-Duty vehicles, including a 2030 mandate for the purchase of zero-emission urban buses. And the capacity-building and exchange activities developed as part of the CBEP project provided invaluable resources that will be available even after project completion. This was also an opportunity to also learn about the CBEP's pioneering work on social dialogue and the impacts of clean bus technologies on the workforce.

To close the day, we had the opportunity to discuss future perspectives of clean bus deployment with an expert panel made of CBEP Partners and guests, including POLIS member Vervoerregio Amsterdam.

The CBEP project's main objective is the creation of a platform for cities, public transport operators, local authorities, infrastructure providers, OEMs, financing entities as well civil society representatives to boost clean bus deployment across Europe as an alternative to cars. This platform brings together European transport authorities and operators with varying degrees of clean bus deployment know-how to boost and support the exchange of knowledge and expertise. It covers all kinds of clean vehicles, battery-electric, fuel cells, CNG, battery trolleys, and plug-in hybrids. If you want to know more about the project, and the CBEP Platform, visit the project website here. This initiative is financed by the European Union.