Driving Urban Transitions (DUT): Strengthening the climate neutrality of cities and well-being of citizens through sustainable transport and mobility

The aim of the project was to strengthen the transport climate actions of the six Finnish Cities mission cities—Espoo, Helsinki, Lahti, Lappeenranta, Tampere, and Turku - by identifying and concretizing measures that promote both transport climate targets and the well-being of city residents. The project contributes to the greater targets for reducing cities’ GHG emissions from transport, a challenge that is addressed in the EU Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities (EU Cities Mission), where 112 frontrunner European cities aim for climate neutrality by 2030, as well as in the European Partnership for Driving Urban Transitions.

The project contributions towards the aim are the following. The project:
• identified key measures of a generic action portfolio supporting behavioural change towards both sustainable urban mobility and well-being of individuals,
• developed a model to assess the co-benefits of selected measures on sustainable urban mobility and well-being,
• developed a tool for transformative capacity building to support cities in the implementation of sustainable mobility and health promotion activities.

The project results showed that sustainable mobility actions targeting to increase in active modes and modal shifts from private cars to sustainable modes do not provide extensive contribution to climate change mitigation. The previous scientific research and the modelling exercise of the project indicated that the wider benefits of those actions come from health and wellbeing impacts of individuals.

The project also produced recommendation on how to further promote sustainable mobility actions with health benefits as an integral part of future mobility, climate action and other relevant plans.