Post-2020 Visions and National Plans for Sustainable Transport

This report is intended to satisfy the queries of the European Biofuels Technology Platform with regards to the sustainable transport policies among Member States for the timeframe 2020 - 2030. Special attention is paid to the main policies for: Alternative Fuels, Means of Transport, Greenhouse Gases (GHG), and Sectorial Objectives related to transport. To do so, this research study reviews, analyses, assesses, and reports the data gathered from National Plans in the field of sustainable transport beyond 2020 of each Member State analysed. To structure the data gathering, an analytical framework was defined, which is also based on the transport-related policy documents issued by the European Commission. Furthermore, this research aims to provide an overview on differences in visions and discourses by Member States regarding sustainable transport beyond 2020. This research also aims to provide a background to explore what policies may be better addressed at national level or European Union level. Key findings were as follows:

• In  all  Member  States,  ambitions beyond  2020  are still  in  the phase  of  visions and plans, and have not yet been translated into formal legislation.
• Not  all  the  Member  States  have  issued  national  plans  beyond  2020.  Only Finland,  Germany,  the  Netherlands,  Poland,  and  the  UK  have  issued  national plans in this regard.
• Timeframes and horizons regarding the action plans for sustainable transport are diverse among Member States. These vary from 2020 and up to 2050.
• There  is  a  major  difference  in  the  availability  of  data  among  national  plans, which  diverges  between  qualitative  and  quantitative  data.  Moreover, a  major difference  among  the  national  plans  is  found  with  regards  to the level of in-depth data.
• The  status  of  the  policy  documents  varies  from:  visions,  targets  and  national strategies.
• The  aim  of  the  policy  documents  varies  from  one  Member  States  to  another, according  to  their  national  preferences.  For some  Member  States  the  aim  is  to modernize  or  update  the  transport  system,  while  for  others the  aim  is  to decarbonize the system or lower the emissions related to transport.