Tampere is falling behind in climate targets if traffic emissions are not reduced, says the Tampere City Audit Committee that I am a part of.
This is the devastating message from the audit committee’s assessment report for the year 2022. Traffic accounts for about a quarter of Tampere’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The greenhouse gas emissions from traffic need to decrease by over half from the 1990 level by 2030 to achieve climate goals. So, urgency is high.
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The city’s efforts to achieve climate goals in transportation have not been sufficient. The city has done a lot to encourage residents to use public transportation, but restraining car traffic has been minimal, and currently, there are projects underway that encourage car use. According to studies, merely enticing people to use public transportation is not enough to shift car drivers to public transport. Additionally, there is a need for restraining car traffic.
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The question is: does the city council have the means for concrete measures restricting car use, or are climate speeches just ceremonial? The council has been eager to achieve goals, but now it’s time to turn goals into actions.
In addition, the committee proposes that the city council grants discharge to members of the governing bodies and leading officials of the functional areas for the financial year from January 1 to December 31, 2022, excluding the sports and youth director, the director of the education services unit, and the education and culture committee. Behind this are activities related to the national way of doing things, which have been widely reported.
Other highlights were also found. The economy was in good shape for the third year in a row, and many goals set by the governing bodies were achieved. The listing of these can be found in the pictures below.
The assessment report will be presented to the city council in June, and it is hoped that the council takes seriously the observations made by the audit committee.
