Emission-free Urban Distribution

Urban distribution has been considered a pioneer area for emission-free freight transport for over a decade (EC White Paper, 2011). The need for emission-free logistics has not diminished. The transport sector is responsible for around 20% of greenhouse gases in Flanders and is the sector that has the most difficulty in reducing its emissions. European and local targets have been tightened. Science shows that fast, big efforts are needed. Realism, however, shows that sharp targets alone are not enough. For example, the Flemish Government set the ambition of organising urban distribution to be emission-free by 2025, and we already have to conclude that this ambition will not be achieved. It is now a matter of making realistic adjustments without sacrificing too much speed (because we do not have that luxury). The specifications issued by the Flemish Government - MOW Department address this issue by supporting a path that
tackling obstacles that stand in the way of emission-free urban logistics.

In our vision we like to start from the (1) complexity of emission-free urban distribution.
From this we conclude that (2) this transition is a system transition and we name the implications of this on our vision of the assignment. We zoom in on the (3) added value of this assignment as an accelerator in this system transition. We conclude with a few (4) points for attention for a dynamic and effective process.