Planes in the E.U. will have to be partly powered by sustainable fuel
By 2025, 2% of fuel offered at EU airports must be sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). This must rise to 6% by 2030, 20% by 2035, and 70% of by 2050.
Transportation
Transportation shapes how people access jobs, healthcare, education, and each other. This archive tracks real progress in transit, infrastructure, electric vehicles, cycling, and more — from local wins to national policy shifts worth knowing about.
Sweden to build world’s first permanent e-road by 2035
The first of its kind in the world, the e-motorway that charges EVs while they drive may lead to an expansion of a further 3,000 km of electric roads in Sweden by 2045.
EVs to capture one-sixth of global market in 2023 amid record growth
Electric vehicles are on track to hit 14 million global sales in 2023, up from 10 million the year before — a jump that has analysts revising their forecasts upward yet again. The International Energy Agency now expects EVs to make up 35 percent of new car sales worldwide by 2030, a sharp leap from the 21 percent it predicted just one year earlier. The shift is showing up in unexpected places too: in India, more than half of all three-wheeled vehicles registered last year were electric, hinting at a faster, leapfrog path through the Global South. With oil demand now projected to peak as early as 2025, the economic logic of the transition is finally pointing the same direction as the climate logic.
Smart running and cycling highway in Dubai runs on 100% renewable energy
The Loop by URB in Dubai is a sustainable urban highway meant for runners, pedestrians, and cyclists. It uses kinetic power to run on 100% renewable energy, is irrigated with 100% recycled water, and also integrates vertical farms into its design.
Cyclists now outnumber motorists in London
The number of motorists has fallen by 64% since 1999, while the number of climate-friendly cyclists has increased by 386%.
Amsterdam airport bans private jets to reduce noise and climate pollution
According to the airport, private and small business travel departing from Amsterdam emits around 20 times more climate-warming carbon dioxide per passenger than commercial aircraft.
Switzerland to install solar panels between railway tracks in world first
With the Swiss national railway network stretching beyond 2,000 miles of track, estimates place the amount of power generation at potentially beyond 1 terawatt hour or 2% of the entire gross annual consumption.
E.U. strikes ‘ground-breaking’ deal to cut maritime emissions
Under the law, which is being hailed as the most ambitious maritime fuel legislation in the world, ship emissions will be reduced by 2% as of 2025 and 80% as of 2050.
10% of global car sales were electric in 2022 for first time ever
Electric vehicles crossed a quiet but enormous threshold in 2022, making up one in every ten new cars sold worldwide for the first time. Roughly 7.8 million fully electric vehicles found buyers that year, even as overall car sales slipped. China led the charge, with EVs accounting for nearly a fifth of new cars sold there, while Europe wasn’t far behind at 11%. Behind the numbers is a deeper shift: battery prices have fallen dramatically over the past decade, and major automakers are doubling their EV output even as their broader sales decline. Ten percent is the moment a technology stops being niche and starts reshaping an industry — a hopeful signal for the global push toward cleaner transport.
Kenya is producing its first electric buses
Electric buses are now being assembled in Kenya for the first time, marking a genuine shift in how East Africa thinks about clean public transit. A Nairobi startup called BasiGo partnered with a veteran Mombasa assembler to build 1,000 electric buses over three years — creating over 600 jobs in manufacturing, maintenance, and charging. What makes this especially promising is BasiGo’s pay-per-kilometer financing model, which makes electric buses as affordable upfront as diesel for everyday operators. Kenya’s already-clean electricity grid means these buses will run on genuinely green power. It’s a hopeful template other African cities could follow.