Mobility poverty risks increasing in the outermost regions, as their specific geographic conditions are aggravated by the effects of climate change, according to a study commissioned by the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism and published on Thursday 6 March.
These are the Canary Islands (Spain), Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte and Saint-Martin (France), Madeira and the Azores (Portugal). Climate change will lead to higher operating costs and the need for cyclical investment in transport infrastructure, which in turn will require greater and more recurrent mobilisation of public resources.
In addition to the costs of complying with the new European climate legislation, the outermost regions are likely to face massive investment needs, despite the fact that their level of wealth is lower than that of continental regions.
In particular, the study proposes establishing an outermost-specific transport support programme or, at least, significantly increasing the outermost specific allocation under Cohesion Policy to accelerate the development of innovative and energy-efficient public transport options.
Read the study: https://aeur.eu/f/fui (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)