Energy efficiency is strictly related to CO2 emissions and by its nature is a global issue.Traffic and transport have the potential of producing savings in energy consumptions that are potentially estimated in 26%. Looking at the traffic and transport system as a whole, energy is addressed in the traffic environment through different angles:•\tVehicle fuel consumption: Savings can be achieved by adding different effects: Engine technology; Environment sensitive traffic control strategy; Ecodriving style of the vehicle drivers•\tEnergy used to operate on-road equipment: traffic control management systems need energy to be operated. Signalisation is the component mostly demanding in terms of electrical power. LED technology makes available special features that can be exploited in order to reduce the energy consumption by using the full luminance only when needed.•\tEnergy harvesting: traffic means moving vehicle and ultimately weight in motion. Using the same principle used by electric engines that recover a fraction of this energy to recharge the batteries, also the roadside infrastructure has the possibility to collect a convert into electrical power portion of this energy.The latest technologies and applications for making vehicle and infrastructure dialoguing (cooperative systems) are perfectly fitting in the scenario, and should be exploited since the first phases of deployment. The COSMO project is aiming at addressing all the above mentioned topics by providing practical demonstration on selected test sites. Sites are selected specifically according to their capacity to run a local pilot project, implementing latest technologies to demonstrate the feasibility and level of impact achievable in different operational context and scenario. The result produced are expected to rise the awareness of the decision makers and pave the way for a new generation of energy efficient and environment aware solutions for traffic management and control.