POSSUM - Policy Scenarios for Sustainable Mobility
Overview
Background & policy context:
Transport is one of the largest sources of environmental pollution, and many of its impacts are increasing. Therefore, transport policy-making is increasingly being required to focus on issues of sustainability. The challenge is to identify the key issues and options for the medium and long term, and to make effective decisions now on initial actions in the face of much uncertainty. Scenario analysis is increasingly being used for such long-range policy formulation.
Objectives:
The main purpose of POSSUM was to develop scenarios showing how the objectives of sustainable mobility could be achieved in a European context, and to set out a methodology for this, centring on so-called Policy Paths comprising of packages of policy measures. In particular, the aim was to identify key issues for future decisions on the Common Transport Policy (CTP) and the Trans European Networks consistent with sustainable mobility.
Throughout this work, the project sought to establish the value of backcasting techniques for policy development. These involve working backwards from a desirable future end-state to determine a feasible means of achieving that outcome.
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