The City of Gothenburg in Sweden is on its way to developing the world’s first green city zone. The Gothenburg Green City Zone is an initiative launched by various stakeholders, including Volvo Cars, to create a carbon-neutral transportation system in the geographical area of Gothenburg.

According to the press release, new technologies will be tested here to allow the region to have 100% emission-free transportation modes by 2030.

With Gothenburg Green City Zone, Gothenburg will become the first region in the world to develop fully zero-emission and scalable transportation solutions.

Gothenburg is an important tourist spot, and the influx of tourists is set to double by 2030. This is going to lead to an increase in modes of transportation. Gothenburg is committed to reducing the carbon footprint to zero by 2030 and providing the city residents with a healthy living environment.

As per the release, a fully climate-neutral and zero-emission transportation system is being developed for a large area surrounding central Gothenburg and surrounding districts. The area can be termed a hotbed for developing new technologies where stakeholders, academia, and institutions can scale up their operations, products, and services in transportation, infrastructure, energy, and other areas related to the environment.

Speaking on this innovative development, Axel Josefson, chairman of Gothenburg’s City Executive Board, said, “In Gothenburg Green City Zone, the city and the business and research communities will work together to make the transportation system emission-free in a short time. With this collaboration, we will take the lead on sustainability issues in Europe as well as show that we are serious about the city’s climate contract with the EU and our ambitious sustainability goals for 2030.”

Echoing a similar sense of optimism, CEO of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, said, “This initiative is fully in line with our company’s purpose. We want to be involved in creating the cities of the future and keep them livable. This initiative allows us to do that and take on responsibility in our hometown at the same time.”

The aim of developing the Gothenburg Green City is to have vehicles run with zero emissions by 2030, in an infrastructure that enables climate-neutral transportation.

The initiative was taken by Gothenburg, Volvo Cars, and RISE Research Institute of Sweden. The initiative has been a success with the Chalmers University of Technology, the School of Business, Economics, and Law at the University of Gothenburg, the Swedish Exhibition and Congress Center, and the City of Mölndal and Johanneberg Science Park have joined the bandwagon so far.

Climate change has become one of the main concerns for countries worldwide. An increasing number of countries are moving toward electric mobility and zero-emission transportation systems to tackle this imminent danger.

Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to phase out gas-powered cars and vehicles in the state by 2035 to tackle the climate change crisis. According to the statement, the California Air Resources Board will establish the regulation to ensure that new passenger cars and vehicle sales in the state are zero-emission by 2035.

Earlier, the European Commission announced that it would launch a €1 billion (~$ 1.16 billion) European Green Deal call for research and innovation projects to tackle the climate crisis and safeguard Europe’s ecosystem and biodiversity. The Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Call opened for registration on September 18, 2020. The deadline for submissions is January 26, 2021.