GLOBAL MOBILITY CALL, AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SPAIN AND ITALY TO LEAD THE SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY TRANSFORMATION

Rome, April 6, 2022.- Spain and Italy need to make use of the post-pandemic recovery plans for the push for sustainable mobility to have positive social, economic and environmental impact. This is also one of the goals of Global Mobility Call, which continued garnishing international support at its presentation in Rome on Tuesday.

The opening took place at the residence of the Spanish Ambassador in Italy, sharing the vision of Global Mobility Call as a front-running international event aimed at fostering social and economic recovery following the pandemic as well as offering energy resilience from international conflicts and taking up the opportunities for sustainable development featured in the European Green Deal and EU Next Generation funding.

The presentation event was opened with a welcome by Alfonso Dastis, the Spanish ambassador to Italy and San Marino, who underscored that "Spain and Italy share common ties and already work together in many areas. Some of the most representative Spanish companies are already in Italy, in industries such as renewable energy, logistics and mobility. In Italy as well as in Spain, we have ambitious projects on the national, regional and municipal level where the cooperation between businesses, public institutions and research centres can only help create ties to develop technologies and projects for our countries and that can be of interest to third-party markets as well".

“Among them, in Spain we can mention the Strategy for Safe, Sustainable and Connected Mobility, financed with funding from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and the bill on Sustainable mobility. And in Italy I'd like to mention the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina in 2026, about which I had a chance to speak with Vice-minister Morelli a few months ago, and I know the project is to develop front-running smart infrastructures", Dastis added.

For his part, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructurs and Sustainable Mobility of the Government of Italy, Alessandro Morelli, stated that "the goal of sustainable mobility is ambitious and culturally high, but it can only be achieved gradually, taking into account the specificities of each economic system in question", which is why he proposed the need to promote alliances between partner countries such as Spain and Italy, in order to be more competitive in raw materials and basic components for the production of vehicles and new generation structures.

Eduardo López Puertas, CEO of IFEMA MADRID, presented the first edition of Global Mobility Call, noting that sustainable mobility has the potential to transform millions of people, communities,

businesses, industries and countries around the world. According to studies by the Association of Spanish Automobile Manufacturers (Asociación Española de Fabricantes de Automóviles, ANFAC), it represents a market that will entail an investment of 54 billion euros by 2040 for all the sectors involved, in other words, 5% of the GDP of Spain, which is also an opportunity for Italian businesses.

"Global Mobility Call offers an excellent challenge to Italian and international business to join forces in this powerful initiative that, from this event, will strengthen professional networks and find like-minded partnerships to develop new projects. It will also raise the possibility of exploring inspirational new technologies, new business models and new value chains", explained López-Puertas.

"Decarbonising mobility to speed up the green recovery"

After the first part of Spanish-Italian institutional participation, a round table was held on Decarbonising mobility to speed up the green recovery"”, in which Italian institutional and business leaders shared their vision of developing sustainable mobility in today's social and economic context.

Elisabetta Ripa, CEO Enel X Way, highlighted her company's role in fostering e-mobility "as a simpler and more natural way of making cities cleaner, more liveable, quieter and more modern", and that "we want to extend it to other market segments such as last-mile city-centre merchandise delivery more extensive to other market segments, vertical take-off flight systems and navigation".

Gianluca Landolina, CEO Cellnex Italy, emphasised that "the world today is headed more and more toward a generalized culture of sustainability that little by little is impregnating every aspect of our private and professional life. Respect for the environment, for the individual and for benefit in its most virtuous balance, which we call "sustainability", has courageously impregnated mobility culture, leading little by little to a reprogramming of the ways we get around, in short distances and long. Underlying it all, the telecom operators also play a key role. With 5G and new IoT networks in general, it will be possible to activate important new services that will transform our cities into smart cities, making them safer, more sustainable and closer to meeting the needs of their citizens".

Valentino Sevino, Director-General of Milan’s Agency for Mobility, Enviroment & Territory (AMAT), pointed out that "cities are the catalyst for mobility and infrastructure for electric charging, so local administrations have an important role to play in defining and studying policies linked to sustainable mobility, which in the case of Milan has all been carried out since November 2018".

Gianmarco Giorda, Director-General of the National Association of the Automotive Industry (ANFIA), described the association as "Fully committed to sustainable mobility, participating in the transition toward the goal of zero emissions”. "Italian businesses now face a challenging process of productive reconversion that entails huge investments in R&D and training to keep their competitive edge in the global market. In order to be in shape to reach these goals and manage and accelerate the transformation, work must be done in developing infrastructures for electric cars, vans, trucks and buses, supporting the demand for green mobility with incentives to buyers of e-cars and plug-in cars, defining clear industrial policy tools to accompany the production line. We also believe a suitable calendar should be set for the progressive elimination of internal combustion engine technologies in order to safeguard jobs and added value. Not only e-technologies but also other specific ones that can make a fundamental contribution to decarbonising (for instance, synthetic fuels, bio-fuels, hydrogen internal combustion vehicles) before reaching the objective of zero-emissions mobility", he added.

The moderator of the round table, Eleonora Rizutto, president of the Italian Association for the Development of the Circular Economy, stated that "sustainable mobility is an essential pillar of the green revolution that society needs as a whole: the use of environmentally friendly alternatives for daily commutes also means a considerable reduction in the negative effects of using traditional means of transport. With this idea, AISEC (the Italian Association for the Development of the Circular Economy) is facilitating all types of innovative associations, thereby also fostering potential circular economy projects".

Global Mobility Call will be held in Madrid from June 14 to 16, organised by IFEMA MADRID and Smobhub, under the auspices of the Ministry of Transports, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma). The global congress will gather more than 7000 international leaders in their respective sectors to promote policies and initiatives on sustainable mobility and garner support and investments for new projects at a key time in which sweeping transformation is needed for social and economic recovery following the pandemic.

• General shots of the Residence of the Spanish Ambassador to Italy, in Rome, on Tuesday 5 April 2022.
• Speakers at podium by order of appearance: Alfonso Dastis, Ambassador of Spain to Italy and San Marino; Alessandro Morelli, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility of Italy; Eduardo López-Puertas, CEO IFEMA MADRID.
• Institutional and business leaders gather for the presentation of Global Mobility Call and a roundtable on sustainable mobility.
• Images of the roundtable discussions.
• Speakers and the public attending the event.

SOUNDBITES IN ITALIAN

01:48-02:21 Alessandro Morelli, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility of Italy

The sustainability of transport can be improved thanks to the good ideas that we are hearing here so I can only thank the Spanish Embassy for this great opportunity and also for promoting an international event that I will be keen to attend to ensure that two countries that are brotherly friends in Europe can work together on a series of initiatives such as the digitalisation of sustainable mobility on which Italy and Spain have so much to say to each other.

“Si può migliorare la sostenibilità del trasporto proprio grazie alle idee le buone idee che corrono sulle gambe degli uomini e quindi non posso far altro che ringraziare l'Ambasciata di Spagna per questa grande opportunità e anche per la promozione di un evento di un evento internazionale alla quale io terrò ad esserci per fare in modo che due Paesi che sono amici fratelli nell'ambito d'Europa possano lavorare assieme su una serie di iniziative come quella della digitalizzazione della mobilità sostenibile sulle quali Italia e Spagna hanno tantissimo da dirsi.”

02:22-02:58 Elisabetta Ripa, CEO Enel X Way

Developing innovation requires collaboration and the sharing of experiences and learning curves that each entity can develop and then pool. This means speeding up development certainly means being more efficient and effective. It is also necessary to initiate a debate to create a more fertile culture for the development of sustainable mobility and to explain to both the market and the institutions that it is necessary to work in a synergistic manner to make this happen very quickly.

“Per sviluppare l'innovazione ci vuole la collaborazione e la condivisione di quelle che sono le esperienze e le curve di apprendimento che ciascuna entità può sviluppare e quindi mettere a fattor comune. Questo significa accelerare lo sviluppo significa sicuramente essere più efficienti ed efficaci. Serve poi ad avviare un dibattito per creare una cultura più fertile per lo sviluppo della mobilità sostenibile e per spiegare sia al mercato di riferimento ma anche alle istituzioni che è necessario lavorare in maniera sinergica perché questo avvenga in tempi molto rapidi.”

02:59-04:32 Eleonora Rizzuto, President of the Italian Association for the Development of the Circular Economy

The opportunities we have in the field of sustainable mobility are many, the most important of which are certainly those of moving definitively to a mix of the use of sustainable mobility solutions, counting on and focusing on raising the awareness of our fellow citizens and fellow citizens with strong support from the point of view of the political decision-maker, who will increasingly encourage this type of alternative. The second major challenge of sustainable mobility is to gradually move away from mobility using fossil fuels towards clearly renewable sources. It has a great value to speak the dissemination between several centres what we said during the conference the ecosystem that comes to fruition through multiple voices that come precisely from different countries in this case we had the good fortune to be hosted at the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Rome and then two countries Italy and Spain that dialogue on this issue together with a great force fed by multiple stakeholders who are the political decision maker private companies citizens local authorities consumers and transversally the new generations that respond better and better to these solutions for sustainable mobility.

“Le opportunità che abbiamo nella nel campo della mobilità sostenibile sono molteplici le più importanti sicuramente sono quelle di passare definitivamente a un mix di utilizzo di soluzioni di mobilità sostenibile contando e puntando sulla sensibilizzazione dei nostri cittadini concittadini e concittadini con un ausilio forte dal punto di vista del decisore politico che incentivi sempre di più questo tipo di alternativa. La seconda grande sfida della mobilità sostenibile è quella che gradualmente porti all'abbandono di mobilità che fanno uso di fonti fossili verso fonti chiaramente rinnovabili. Ha una grande valenza il parlare la divulgazione tra più centri quello che abbiamo detto durante la conferenza l'ecosistema che viene a realizzarsi attraverso più voci che vengano appunto da diversi paesi in questo caso abbia avuto la fortuna di essere ospitati presso l'ambasciata la residenza dell'ambasciatore spagnolo a Roma e quindi due paesi l'Italia e la Spagna che dialogano su questo argomento insieme a una grande forza alimentata da più soggetti stakeholders che sono il decisore politico le imprese private i cittadini gli enti locali i consumatori e trasversalmente le nuove generazioni che rispondono sempre meglio a queste soluzioni di mobilità sostenibile.”

04:33-05:20 Gianmarco Giorda, General Director, National Association of the Automotive Industry (ANFIA)

As Anfia, the automotive industry association, we believe that sustainable mobility is a great opportunity for our industry. However, this transition towards sustainable mobility needs to be managed and accompanied, for example, in Italy we have 400,500 companies that are still engaged in the traditional engine sector. These companies need to be helped and supported in order to try and find new market opportunities, for example in electric mobility, and so tools such as production conversion, research and development, and even personnel restyling can be very, very useful in helping these companies find new opportunities, for example in the area of electric mobility.

“Noi come Anfia che l'associazione della filiera dell'auto riteniamo che la mobilità sostenibile sia una bella opportunità per la nostra filiera. Però e dico però questa transizione verso la mobilità sostenibile va gestita accompagnata ad esempio in Italia abbiamo 400 500 aziende che sono impegnate ancora nei domini del motore tradizionale. Queste aziende vanno aiutate supportate per cercare di trovare delle nuove opportunità di mercato per esempio nella mobilità elettrica per cui strumenti come la riconversione produttiva la ricerca e sviluppo piuttosto che anche il restyling del personale possono essere molto molto utili per aiutare queste aziende ad avere nuove opportunità per esempio nell'ambito della mobilità elettrica.”

05:21-06:04 Valentino Sevino, General Director, Milan Mobility Environment and Territory Agency (AMAT)

"Dialogue is the basis for the development of sustainable mobility, because the more mobility and transport systems succeed in reflecting the needs of users and therefore of those who live in the city, the more users will then use these systems. Technical tables have been set up with associations and associations from the world of business, commerce and citizens in order to create projects from the bottom up, and the development of these projects has been dictated by this very important basis".

“Il dialogo è alla base dello sviluppo della mobilità sostenibile perché più la mobilità e i sistemi di trasporto riescono a rispecchiare le esigenze dell'utenza e quindi di chi vive la città più l'utenza poi utilizza questi sistemi quindi in tutte le politiche di mobilità attuate ad esempio nel caso della città di Milano si sono sempre. Reati dei tavoli tecnici con le associazioni e le associazioni del mondo dell'impresa del commercio dei cittadini proprio per creare progetti che partono dal basso e lo sviluppo degli stessi è stato dettato proprio da questa base molto importante.”

06:05-06:54 Gianluca Landolina, CEO Cellnex Italy

I think there are essentially two drivers and everything we do for it to be developed has to be adapted to our customs and habits. Today we are a digital population, a digital society whatever we have in the display has to do with our needs and desires and also sustainable mobility will have to be connected and the good thing is that it's being born connected. Another thing is that there are entry barriers for many segments of the population. The tax exemption for electric cars, car sharing and anything to do with mobility is an important driver of the social development of mobility in the future. 

“ Ma io credo che i driver siano essenzialmente due e tutto ciò che facciamo perché sia sviluppato deve essere comodo perché sia comodo deve essere a portata ai nostri usi e costumi oggi noi siamo una popolazione digitale una società digitale qualsiasi cosa abbiamo nel display gestisce le nostre ansie e indirizza i nostri desideri anche a mobilità sostenibile dovrà essere connessa e sta nascendo connessa e quindi ben venga. Altra cosa è il fatto che abbia una barriera all'ingresso molto bassa per qualsiasi fascia della popolazione. La defiscalizzazione delle macchine elettriche dello sharing e di qualsiasi cosa abbia a che fare con la mobility è un driver importante dello sviluppo sociale che la mobility potrà avere in futuro. “