By 2025, all goods vehicles in the city will need to be emission-free
The city of Groningen is taking concrete steps towards a CO2-free city center, after both the Mayor and Aldermen proposed to the
local council that it aim towards making the transport of goods emission-free by 2025. As reported by the Groninger Internet Courant.
From 2025 all vehicles that are delivering or collecting goods will have to be both CO2 and nitrogen-free. In addition, the gemeenteraad would like to ban all loading and unloading after morning hours.
These plans from the municipal administration should help contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in the Netherlands to zero by 2050. Eric Bos, chair of the Groningen City Club (GCC) of entrepreneurs, is happy with the proposed measures. “This is a great step towards achieving a CO2-neutral city center. We started this earlier by banning cars from the city. “
With the extension of the so called “window times”, goods may only be picked up or delivered between 5:00 and 12:00. This currently only applies to a few streets around the Grote Markt and Vismarkt. In 2022, the entire inner city will be added to the zone, as well as the Westerhaven shopping area.
Meeting the measures will also be challenging, Bos acknowledges. Deliveries, event traffic and waste collection, must not cause emissions from 2025. “Because The Netherlands must be CO2-free by 2050, every municipality must implement its own plan to achieve this in its own area. Groningen has chosen to do its own logistics electrically, by hydrogen-power or by bicycle. You approach it step by step, so that you do not suddenly have to take draconian measures later. If you push it forward too hard, the measures will only become more annoying,” says Bos.
