care-north.eu

The aim of CARE-North is to develop a comprehensive, strategic and practical approach to urban and regional transport/accessibility in the North Sea Region in the context of climate change and declining oil supplies. While the North Sea Region deals with the effects of climate change, the traditional understanding of transport is leading to a continued increase in CO2 emissions, undermining other climate protection efforts. Concurrently, we are facing the impending limit of mineral oil supplies.

The combination of these two factors demands a re-thinking of the concept of “transport” (building more road transport infrastructure) to a broader notion of “accessibility” (citizens’ ability to meet their daily social, health, personal and economic needs safely, comfortably and conveniently) as we start to adjust to a post-fossil mobility.

There is an urgent need for low-carbon accessibility strategies at the local and regional level and a comprehensive and strategic approach will reduce the economic and social vulnerability of regions when oil prices rise again. But the theme of transport is a politically and economically sensitive one and requires pioneers to lead the way toward low-carbon accessibility.

The NSR has a huge potential for innovative transport strategies which could improve the economic performance of its regions and cities in a post-fossil economy (see Lisbon Agenda), but transnational collaboration is needed both in terms of building political support and momentum, as well as in concrete terms of establishing uniform standards and infrastructure across the region. Using shared locally or regionally adapted instruments and methods and the expertise of the various partners and other institutions, we will link existing local or regional CO2 reduction strategies, jointly develop them into action plans.

After developing CO2 reduction strategies for transport (phase one), we will begin implementation of short-term actions and will calculate the potential of long-term actions as lighthouse/pilot actions. We will compare the process transnationally, with cities/regions sharing the hands-on knowledge and experience gained through their local projects to provide valuable input for framework setting at the European and national levels, thus bridging the gap between policy, research and practical application by end users.

Innovative actions will be implemented as lighthouse projects and assessed, particularly for CO2 emissions. We will disseminate the results and ideas widely throughout the duration of the project, exchanging knowledge and transnational learning not only among the CARE-North cities and partners but at a broader level. The project will make use of a wide range of communication channels to raise awareness about the theme of low-carbon transport/accessibility.

Involvement of citizens and the business community will be a part of the external communication process approach to develop low carbon accessibility strategies. Other strategies include participation in the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in Dec 09, e-newsletters, workshops, seminars, network dissemination, database use, cooperation with third partners (EEA, city networks, North Sea Commission, etc.), and our final conference. The conference is planned for Bremen (together will ICLEI) in 2012, accompanying the Rio+20 activities. All of these together will serve to raise the profile of the NSR as a future-focussed, liveable, sustainable, and accessible region.