With a Factor 8 to the Mobility System of the Future

Climate change is here. We are in the middle of it and cannot turn a deaf ear to the alarm bells that are sounding ever more compellingly. The impact of unbridled greenhouse gas emissions is incontrovertibly proven and clearly measurable: the warming of the atmosphere and oceans, a change in the frequency and intensity of precipitation, a change in storm activity, a faster acidification of the oceans... There is no more time to close our eyes and think the problem away. No, if we don't want to burden future generations with insurmountable problems, we need to take action... and right away.
Cathy Macharis, professor of Sustainable Mobility and Logistics at the VUB, puts her finger on the problem and translates meeting the climate goals - which for greenhouse gas emissions implies a reduction by a factor of 8 - into a concrete and sustainable mobility plan to which everyone can and will have to do their bit. The challenge is huge, and despite the fact that technology can help us do this, technology alone cannot solve the problem. In 8 A's a (Awareness, Avoidance, Act and Shift, Anticipation, Acceleration, Actor involvement, Alteration and All in love!), a plan of action is comprehensively proposed, starting with a change in mentality. This discourse advocates urgent but achievable change, without finger-pointing, hysteria or the pessimism so often inherent in the climate debate.

Cathy Macharis is full professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and coordinator of the research group MOBILISE. Her research focuses on the transition to a more sustainable mobility and logistics system. She is the chair of the Brussels Mobility Commission and part of the High Committee for a Just Transition in Belgium.