Cork City Council has joined seven European partners in a new project to help reach its target of being a carbon-neutral city by 2030.

Through the European Green deal, the EU set ambitious targets to decarbonise transport. The European Environmental Agency (EEA) estimates that road traffic constitutes the highest proportion of overall transport emissions. In 2019, it emitted 72% of all domestic and international transport Green House Gases (GHGs), and 23% of the EU’s transport GHG emissions come from urban areas. In Cork city, petrol and diesel vehicles are responsible for 29% of our GHG emissions.

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In March 2023, the Zero Carbon Infrastructure (ZCI) project began, to help reach its targets for reducing the emissions. Financed by the Interreg Europe programme, this four-year project sets an ambitious goal to support eight cities and regions across Europe.

To achieve that goal, the partners will cooperate, identify and test practical solutions to overcome the challenges we are facing. Led by the County administrative board of Kronoberg (Sweden) and with support from the Erasmus Centre for Urban, Port and Transport Economics (The Netherlands), Cork City Council will explore solutions for:

• Private electric-vehicles charging infrastructure;

• Sustainable urban logistics;

• The business model of sustainable urban mobility – incentives that build customer demand for decarbonised transport solutions;

• Transition to zero-carbon mobility – public acceptance and communication.