Background and issues
The transport sector has significant impacts on the environment and on public health. As mobility is a key aspect of social inclusion (access to work, commerce, healthcare), existing and potential mobility-related inequalities must be considered to ensure a fair and just energy transition in the sector. In the housing sector, a consideration of social inequalities in the context of the energy transition has resulted in energy poverty being integrated into the political agenda in the 2000s. However, energy poverty has two components – housing and transport – and an overarching strategy for transport has yet to be outlined by public authorities.
To address this aspect, IDDRI focused on “mobility-related vulnerability”, which includes the notion of mobility-related poverty (proven mobility difficulties, specifically due to limited revenue and increased cost of transportation) as well as vulnerability (the risk of insecurity or poverty due to untoward events or change in policy). This definition takes the energy aspect of the issue into account (as fuel expenditure can be affected by changes in energy prices) as well as other factors that influence mobility (types of behaviour, cognitive biases, supply of mobility services, land use planning).
Various actors from a range of fields (environment, mobility, energy, land use planning, housing, the social sector) came together to generate knowledge and explore ways to address mobility-related vulnerability and appeal to policy-makers at different levels.
Objectives and results
As the knowledge about mobility-related vulnerability, especially at the local level, seems adequate to address the issue, and solutions to tackle the issue exist, this project examined the conditions required to integrate mobility-related vulnerability into the political agenda.
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Building mobility-related vulnerability as a public policy issue:
In order to understand the scope of the problem and the proposed solutions, IDDRI conducted an analysis of the similarities and differences in the conception of mobility-related vulnerability by actors working at the national level. This work has helped establish a typology of the various groups of actors working on the integration of this issue into the political agenda and their distinct visions of the problem.
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How can a political framework for mobility-related vulnerability be set? IDDRI, in partnership with ADEME, organized a workshop on the issue of mobility-related vulnerability which brought together actors from the social, environmental, mobility and land use planning sectors. The aim of the workshop was to clarify what these actors expected from public action and to identify how to build a successful strategy to reduce and prevent mobility-related vulnerability.
Download the background paper of the workshop, including the report summary (in French)
Download th workshop summary (in French)
This project was conducted in association with ADEME, in support of the second phase of work by the ONPE (National Observatory of Energy Poverty - France).
