Our experience

Setting the scene

Presently, Slovenia’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are above the EU average. The main contributor to this is the country’s Transport sector, which accounts for 31,8% of  Slovenia’s total emissions. Looking at this sector, we can see that measures can be taken both on the side of public transport as well as promoting the use of alternative fuels. 

However, over the last 10 years, the number of people using public transport has decreased in Slovenia. And previous efforts, such as subsidising tickets, have had little success in incentivizing higher public transport use. 

In parallel, Slovenia has developed Alternative Fuels Legislation in line with EU practices, but the present acts did not offer a sufficient legal basis for the division of tasks – mainly who is responsible to set-up and manage the infrastructure. In Slovenia, there is also little commercial interest to further develop alternative fuels (beyond the present electric changing network), as it is dependent on the provision of State-Aid schemes. 

To enable Slovenia to achieve the reduction of GHG emissions, a comprehensive set of legislative changes is needed in both public transport and alternative fuel segments. On one side, a public transport act can help regulate management and subsequently increase the number of people using public links. On the other hand, a comprehensive change of alternative fuels infrastructure management can give a legal framework for increasing the commercial appeal of the development of this infrastructure, and promote the use of alternative fuels in Slovenia.

How we helped

Together with our partners, who are the leading experts in fields of public transport, alternatives fuels, and drafting of legislative acts, we approached the project streams in parallel to maintain similar approach. 

Initially we performed a comprehensive as-is assessment to identify the present systems of management of both public transport and alternative fuels. This also included holding a series of online questionnaires for wider stakeholders, such as users and providers. We gathered their expectations, as well the opinion about the present systems and their shortcomings. At this stage, we also mapped EU-wide best practices in management of public transport and alternative fuels infrastructure. Finally, we performed a gap assessment to identify the key areas where intervention was needed to improve the present system. 

The findings of the gap assessment have been used to jointly with the Ministry of Infrastructure design the future state of management of both public transport and alternative fuels. Within this step the main challenge were strong expectations from the market players, which sometimes clashed with the best practices and chosen direction. Our team helped  mitigate this through including external stakeholders in the design phase, and conducting a focused negotiation on the key points, thus driving a lasting change. 

Finally, once the future state was confirmed, we proceeded to develop a set of legislative acts, that are to be forwarded to the Slovenian Parliament for approval. Within this step we completed multiple revisions of the acts to align it to the expectations of Slovenian agencies in charge of the legislative process. We expect this law to come into the parliamentary schedule in early January 2022.  

Impact and potential

The biggest impact of this project will be in the potential expansion of the alternative fuels infrastructure in Slovenia. This expansion can help reduce Slovenian greenhouse gas emissions, as citizens begin to use non-carbon emitting fuels more and access public transport to a greater degree. In the future, this will also help reduce congestion and traffic accidents on the Slovenian highways. 

Overall, this effort opened up a larger and more pressing dialogue on the GHG emissions in Slovenia. Alongside that, by working with Slovenian policymakers, we also helped raise questions around data management and the commercial viability of specific alternative fuels. Generating discussions like these are what will help push the sustainability agenda further in the country long after this project has ended.