3 April - 14 April 2023

ESC’ weekly Sustainability Newsletter contains a selection of the week’s most relevant information, webinars, and events in the sustainability field. It will typically be published at the end of the week. Any upcoming important developments will be announced within our regular news posts.

The newsletter provides an information update (news, press releases, regulations, and reports) as well as an overview of past and upcoming events (conferences, workshops, meetings). An overview of previous sustainability newsletters can be found here.

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3 April 2023
Action plan
viadonau

viadonau has published a new action plan 'Danube 2030' for the development of the Danube river as nature area and modern waterway. The Danube is positioned as an important element of the European transport net which will integrate global influence factors such as climate change and digitalisation into its future developments, considering all aspects such as nature conservation, modal shift, modernisation, and business competition. The action plan is published in German only.

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4 April 2023
Press release
EC - press corner
PDF file

The European Commission has published updated State aid guiding templates to assist Member States in designing measures, which will be included in their national Recovery and Resilience Plans (‘RRPs'), in line with EU State aid rules. In particular, the updated technical documents will help Member States design measures that further contribute to the implementation of the European Green Deal, while helping to end the dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition as set out in the REPowerEU Plan.

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5 April 2023
Deliverable
IWT platform

A key element of the digitalization of logistics and transportation infrastructure may be autonomous shipping. The effects of evolving legislation and technology will be felt throughout the entire value chain.

The deliverable of the AUTOSHIP (Autonomous Shipping Initiative for European Waters) project summarizes the findings of cost-benefit assessments performed on two use cases: short sea shipping (SSS) and inland waterway transport  (IWT).

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6 April 2023
Study
ENTRANCE

ENTRANCE has re-posted a study performed by dfine and UIRR on "Zero-Carbon Combined Transport: Technology and efficiency analysis of zero-carbon road-rail combined transport" (study originates from May 2022). The study concludes that "zero-carbon combined transport is already feasible today from a technical as well as operational perspective". It continues that "different measures are needed to fully use its potential for achieving the EU’s climate targets. On the one hand the share of combined transport of total freight transport must be increased, on the other hand the necessary steps to develop a wide-spread network of complete zero-carbon transport relations from the few options in the market today needs to be taken."

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11 April 2023
News
Sustainable Finance
Taxonomy Navigator

The Commission has launched a four-week feedback period, open until 3 May 2023, on a new set of EU Taxonomy criteria for economic activities making a substantial contribution to one, or more, of the following environmental objectives: sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, transition to a circular economy, pollution prevention and control and protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems.

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11 April 2023
News
IWT Platform
DESTATIS

IWT has posted an information by the German Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), originally published on 27/03/2023, stating that goods transport by inland waterways in Germany in 2022 has been at its lowest level since the German unification (1990). In more detail, a total of 182 million tonnes of goods were transported on German inland waterways in 2022 (2021: 195 million tonnes). This corresponds to a 6.4% drop and an 11% drop compared to the pre-Covid year of 2019.

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12 April 2023
Press release
WindEurope

WindEurope has published a press release that TEN-T must acknowledge the strategic role of ports in offshore wind. Background is that all the relevant equipment for offshore wind deployment is stored in and transported via ports. The EU must recognise the critical role of offshore wind ports in its trans-European transport network policy (TEN-T). With an ongoing revision the EU wants its TEN-T to better support the transition to a cleaner, greener and smarter mobility in line with the European Green Deal. This will only succeed if the eligibility criteria for TEN-T don’t penalise offshore wind ports.

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13 April 2023
Press release
EU

The European Parliament published a press release about Trans-European transport projects. The TRAN committee adopted its position on the review of trans-European transport (TEN-T) rules. This is the EU's plan to build a network of railways, roads, inland waterways and short sea shipping routes connected through ports and terminals across the European Union. Current TEN-T projects range from Rail Baltica, connecting Helsinki and Warsaw, to Brenner Base Tunnel, linking Austria and Italy, or the Lisbon–Madrid high-speed rail line. TRAN advocates for unified technical and operational standards for each transport mode and stress that intermodal transport should be primarily done by rail, inland waterways or short-sea shipping, while any initial and/or final legs can be carried out by road.

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28 March 2023
Workshop
ALICE
Agenda

The workshop "Dutch initiatives supporting zero emission road freight and logistics" belongs to the series of online workshops on “countries and regions initiatives supporting zero emission road freight and logistics”, jointly organised by EMEurope and ALICE, with the support of the POLIS Network and the project ENTRANCE. This workshop was co-organised by Rijkswaterstaat, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and CALSTART/Drive to Zero. The link on the left provides an overview and links to the presentations held.

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4 April 2023
Meeting
EU

The 10th European Union (EU) – United States Energy Council (“Council”) has met in Brussels, chaired by EU High Representative/Vice President Josep Borrell Fontelles, European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and US Deputy Secretary of Energy David M. Turk. Minister Tobias Billström of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs represented the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The joint statement can be found via the link on the left.

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13 April 2023
Meeting TRAN
Dods
TRAN

On its meeting on 13 April 2023, the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) has voted on the draft report on the Guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network, amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1153 and Regulation (EU) No 913/2010 and repealing Regulation (EU) 1315/2013. The vote was unanimous. The Committee adopted a positive vote on the decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations on the file.