Energy transition as blueprint for the mobility transistion

What do the energy transition and the transport transition have in common? That's right, the ‘turnaround’ towards environmentally friendly living and economic activity. For Verkehrsclub Deutschland e.V. (VCD), the transport transition is achieved when, in addition to the decarbonisation of transport, everyone - regardless of their place of residence, wallet or physical condition - has the choice of how to get from A to B in a comfortable, safe and environmentally friendly way and the means of transport of the environmental network - i.e. bus and train, bicycle, walking, car sharing and taxi - are always the first choice! To achieve this, there must be an appropriate range of public transport options, which always have priority, and the rampant use of private cars must be curbed, for example through entry and transit restrictions in sensitive areas according to the motto ‘Residents First, Transit Drivers Second’, closures in school streets, a car toll, a limit and appropriate pricing for parking in public spaces, and strict monitoring of compliance with pollutant and noise emissions in any case.

How can the energy and mobility transition succeed for the common good? The energy transition is already on the right track. This is because the modernised Energy Industry Act provides a sensible legal framework and - most importantly - the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) is a powerful and very effective instrument that has provided renewable energies with basic, adequate funding and, above all, feed-in priority over conventional energies. This was all done for the common good, as there is no alternative to phasing out fossil fuels to avert the impending climate crisis. At least as long as there is no more climate-friendly energy generation than that from solar, wind, biomass and hydropower.

Another decisive factor for the success of the energy transition was individual committed pioneers and the citizen energy cooperatives (citizen wind farms, citizen solar plants). They have shown with considerable technical, economic and political commitment against almost overwhelming resistance from the four large conventional oligopolistic energy suppliers (EON, RWE, EnBW and Viag) that renewable energies, especially wind power, work and are wanted. Today, the renewable energy sector is characterised by medium-sized companies with a high proportion of cooperatives or other forms of participation. The oligopolists of the past have changed tack late and are now also building large-scale projects, albeit mainly offshore or abroad. In Germany onshore, civil society and the small and medium-sized companies that have developed from it have beaten them to the good locations.

The transport transition can learn a lot from the energy transition. There are a number of parallels, even if differences remain: