Carbon Pricing & Transport Decarbonization, Montenegro

Year: 2023–2024  |  Client: European Court of Auditors (ECA)  |  Country: Montenegro

Under the oversight of the European Court of Auditors, Cities Forum delivered a technical analysis of how carbon-pricing mechanisms shape technological transformation within Montenegro's transport sector. As a candidate country aligning with EU climate and transport policy, Montenegro faces the challenge of designing fiscal instruments that cut emissions without imposing socially unacceptable costs, and the ECA required independent, evidence-based findings to inform its audit of EU cooperation with Western Balkan states on climate and transport.

Our approach

The assignment examined how carbon taxation, emissions trading and fuel-related fiscal instruments influence incentives for electric-vehicle adoption, fleet renewal, modal shift and low-carbon logistics. Cities Forum conducted an in-depth literature review, built quantitative models of fuel-price evolution, transport demand and welfare effects, and carried out comparative case-study analysis drawing on international jurisdictions such as Colombia, Poland and other Western Balkan peers. A structured assessment of Montenegro's e-mobility market identified concrete gaps in charging infrastructure, import and registration frameworks, financing availability and consumer awareness, the practical bottlenecks that determine whether pricing signals actually change behaviour.

What we delivered

Deliverables included multiple draft analysis documents, scenario spreadsheets tracing alternative carbon-pricing pathways, a technical presentation for ECA auditors, and a consolidated decarbonisation roadmap setting out policy instruments, sequencing and estimated impacts through to 2030. Stakeholder consultation informed the calibration of assumptions and tested the realism of proposed interventions, ensuring the analysis was grounded in Montenegrin conditions rather than abstract theory.

Impact

The work provided the European Court of Auditors with rigorous, independent evidence to support its audit function, and equipped Montenegrin authorities with a structured analytical base for designing effective, socially acceptable carbon-pricing mechanisms aligned with EU-accession requirements. By combining econometric modelling with pragmatic market assessment and international benchmarking, Cities Forum bridged high-level policy analysis and on-the-ground feasibility. The project also extended the firm's portfolio into carbon-pricing and fiscal-instrument analysis for European institutions, complementing its operational mobility work with the kind of quantitative policy assessment increasingly demanded at the intersection of climate, transport and public finance.