Bringing knowledge and insights to society
Mistra SAMS annual report for 2023
2023 was an intense climate policy year. The EU’s Fit for 55 climate package has highlighted the need for rapid emission reductions and for each member state to do its fair share. The UN climate summit in Dubai and the agreement that the world’s countries should transition away from fossil fuels underscores the importance of quickly moving from the what to the how in emission reduction efforts. Mistra SAMS’ research is timely in relation to these international commitments.
Over the past year, research published in the programme has shown that electrification is important, but far from sufficient to meet emission targets. Other results show the importance of strengthening the link between the type of future prototypes tested in the programme’s Living Labs, and the strategic planning and development work carried out in traffic and urban planning, and in collaboration with industry and civil society at local and regional level.
In 2023, Mistra SAMS was characterised by intensive activities to collect empirical data and analyse what the trans- formation to sustainable travel and sustainable accessibility means for different groups in different places. One interesting example was the time-limited trial of a service that reinforces regular public transport for commuters with inconvenient working hours.
Other topics that have shaped the work of the programme over the past year have included local change processes, citizens’ experiences of switching to more sustainable everyday travel, sustainable business models and service concepts, and interactive workshop methods for learning and exchanging experiences of sustainable transformation across organisational and subject boundaries.
New questions and perspectives include the role of visions in the transition, consumption-based emission targets and their relationship to the climate policy framework, issues of timetabling in public transport, indirect effects of increased use of virtual reality and political leadership for the transition.
Read the annual report for 2023, to find out about the results from our Living Labs, insights shared with policy makers and planners, media impact and publications: Mistra SAMS annual report for 2023 (pdf 4.8 MB)