New report from UITP provides guidance on how public transit providers can achieve decarbonization goals

The International Association of Public Transport’s (UITP) has released a new report, “The Road to Sustainability: Transition to Renewable Energy in Public Transport,”, provides guidance on how public transport undertakings can achieve a successful energy transition to their decarbonization goals, including examples of best practices from across the globe.

The report recognizes transit’s progress toward electrical power, which positions it as a leading provider of sustainable transport.

The report covers energy use in public transit, including the decarbonization of mobility and the role of public transit, the challenges and perspectives on differing energy markets segments to the schemes available and setting up the energy transition and assessing the impacts.

To maintain this leadership role and take its share of the burden of reducing emissions, the sector is currently decarbonizing its activities by transitioning to renewable energy sources. This includes the electrification of vehicle fleets (including buses, boats, shared cars and trains) and investing in fleets powered by other alternative energy sources, such as hydrogen or biofuels.

For the sector to achieve this transformation and meet its decarbonization objectives, it must invest both in new green fleets to ensure they have access to green and renewable sources of energy.

“This report gathers a year’s worth of work between the UITP Sustainable Development Committee and other UITP members who kindly contributed to our working group. Over the course of 2022, the energy topic grew in importance for many, and I believe the hard work all our contributors put in this report should support the sector in facing the energy and climate crisis, said Elisabetta Tromellini, head of CSR sustainability at FNM S.P.A and chair of the Sustainable Development Committee.

The energy transition of society will be one of the challenges to overcome in the upcoming years to achieve climate objectives. While the transition towards alternative fuel technologies is ongoing in the public transport sector, renewable energy supplies is currently not as well covered in energy transition strategies.

Renewable energies supply will differ from one context to another, which is why it is important to understand the legal context and local energy markets. Working in cooperation with an energy provider/developer, municipalities and other energy consumers facilitates the deployment of new renewable electricity assets and a supply of renewable fuels.

“The transition to renewable energy is an outstanding opportunity for the public transport sector to reaffirm its leadership position as a provider of sustainable mobility. Across all assets, the energy transition only strengthens benefits of public transport and should be on the agenda of all stakeholders in the sector,” said Arthur Cormier, manager, UITP Sustainable Development Committee.

In addition to decarbonization benefits, the energy transition and shift to renewable energy supplies have other strong added values in terms of operations, public transport users, citizens and cities. 

The full report is available on UIPT's website.