The “Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Nordic Countries” conference was held on on the 31st of October and 1st of November in conjunction with Akershus County Council’s conference “Regional Power for Clean Transport”.  Attended by over a 100 participants, this conference highlighted the crucial role of regions and cites in achieving the ambitions of the EU Clean Power for Tranport. EHA Brussels office coordinator Marieke Reijalt presented the consequences of the upcoming EU legislation and funding programs for alternative fuels infrastructure development at local level.

Thanks to the measures by Akershus’ transport authority Ruter to reach climate neutral public transport in 2020, renewing its bus fleet including fuel cell buses, public transport is up by 29% since 2007 while car use remains flat. Ruter’s ambition to double public transport use by 2025 is responding to passengers’ request for frequency, predictability, simplicity; passengers presume the bus operator to be environmentally responsible. A curious aspect of the success of Akershus public transport is that there is less revenue of private transport to fund the public transport ambition…

Ola Elvestuen, chair of the standing committee on Energy and Environment, indicated that with regards to ambitions Norway is an active EU member: 15,200 electric vehicles are on the roads and half of them are running in Akershus.