11 European cities ask the EU to make purchase of zero emission buses mandatory from 2027

11 European cities ask the EU to make purchase of zero emission buses for public transport mandatory from 2027. “Without action at EU level, demand for zero emission urban buses will not be matched by supply“, they wrote in a letter sent to the EU Commission on 24th October.

They add: “Crucially, we ask the Commission to propose a target for all new urban buses sales to be zero emission from 2027“.

This is the list of signatory cities: Barcelona, Cluj-Napoca, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Malaga, Milan, Palma, Paris, Rotterdam, Seville and Valencia. The letter is signed also by a series of organizations. Among them: C40, the Clean Cities Campaign and Energy Cities.

EU cities want to move to zero emission buses

In the letter, sent on 24th October, the cities say: “Around 20 major European cities including Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid, Rome and Warsaw have pledged to only buy zero emission buses from 2025. These cities will join a similar number already only procuring zero emission buses – a group that includes all Dutch cities, Denmark’s six largest municipalities, Hamburg and London, among others. Leading cities are ditching fossil fuels fast, and want more zero emission buses as soon as possible. Some traditional bus-makers are stepping up too, with Daimler and MAN for example pledging that all their new urban buses will be zero emission by 2030″.

The issue is on the supply side: “Without action at EU level, demand for zero emission urban buses will not be matched by supply. This would jeopardise the commitments of leading cities and expose EU
citizens to air pollution for longer. Constrained by a lack of availability, or prices that are too high due to insufficient zero emission bus supply, cities will be forced to keep buying combustion engine buses. That is why we – cities, civil society organisations and other stakeholders – ask the European Commission to include a sales target for all new urban buses to be zero emission by 2027 in its forthcoming proposal”.

James Nix, freight manager at Transport & Environment, which also signed the letter, said: “Cities want electric buses to protect the health of their citizens. But often they are just not available at the scale needed or at affordable prices. The EU urgently needs to step in and set a clear target by when all new urban buses must be zero emissions. That will support manufacturers to invest with confidence in production, thereby making clean buses widely available and cheaper.”