Europe’s leaders in sustainable urban mobility and transport were honoured last week at the CIVITAS Awards 2021. The cities of Parma (Italy), one of our POTEnT partners was recognised in one of the CIVITAS Award category, winning Europe’s most prestigious prizes for sustainable approaches to urban mobility together with the cities of Aachen (Germany) – CIVITAS Transformation Award, and Gdynia (Poland) – CIVITAS Legacy Award.
At a dynamic CIVITAS Forum in Aachen, Parma was declared the winner of this year’s “Climate-Neutral” award as an acknowledgement of the most ambitious transport initiatives undertaken to create a climate-neutral city.
To reach its climate goals, Parma realised that it needs to reduce local car use. To that end, the city put in place its most ambitious sustainable mobility project: a new Low Emission Zone.
Reflecting on the win, Tiziana Benassi, Deputy Mayor for Environmental Sustainability from the City of Parma expressed:
“Our ambition, shared amongst the public and private organisations that are partners of the Parma Carbon Neutrality Alliance, is to reach carbon neutrality by 2030: a very ambitious yet achievable goal if we all believe change is possible and we work every day to fight climate change. We want to promote a new mobility culture, centred on our citizens’ needs while being more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Limiting access for the most polluting cars with the introduction of a Low Emission Zone across the entire urban area is our first step in the systemic transformation to make Parma a green and carbon-neutral city. The Green area, whose heart is the historical city centre (Blue area), will contribute to a higher quality of life of everyone visiting, working and living in Parma.”
Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Transport and Mobility, made note of the exceptional calibre of work featured among this year’s award winners:
"A particularly exciting year for me at the CIVITAS Forum, we can see all the work over the years now leading us towards climate-neutral cities. And we hope to see 100 climate-neutral cities across the EU by 2030."
For more information on the CIVITAS Awards and the exceptional work of Parma and the other award winners, visit: civitas.eu/awards.
