The transport sector contributes to 23% of energy-related CO2 emissions and is the fastest growing sector in terms of GHG emissions in developing countries.
To encourage international action and to slow down this growth, GTZ, Veolia Transport, UITP and TRL have decided to join forces to encourage the recognition that transport can and should play in mitigating GHG emissions. Together we hope to achieve that a Post 2012 Agreement will be fully applicable to the sustainable land transport sector.
The initiative is strengthened further by contributing to the Sustainable Low Carbon Transport Partnership, of which all Bridging the Gap members are a part.
1st round of UN climate change negotiations take place in April in Bonn, Germany
The UNFCCC COP 15 Bureau decided on Monday, 22 February, that the next round of AWG-KP and AWG-LCA meetings should take place in Bonn from Friday, 9 April through Sunday,11 April 2010. The AWG-KP and AWG-LCA meetings are to be preceded by preparatory regional group meetings on 8 April. Further information will be made available soon.
New "informal" AWG-LCA document available
The UNFCCC Secretariat has now published a text of informal drafting groups of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action that was drafted in Copenhagen at COP15 after the official AWG-LCA report was released. The work of the drafting groups generated some progress but was of an informal nature and have been reproduced in the continued efforts of the AWG-LCA to reach agreement on outstanding issues. The AWG-LCA is now invited to consider the texts along with meeting report of AWG-LCA 8.
Comparability of Annex I Emission Reduction Pledges
The Bali Action Plan calls for "ensuring the comparability of efforts" among developed Parties. The ability to compare pledges is seen as a vital element of ensuring a fair, equitable, and transparent global agreement.
The World Resources Institute developed a tool to examine three metrics of comparability: percent change in absolute emission reductions, percent change in per capita emission reductions and percent change in emissions intensity reductions.
Transport as CDM? It is already happening
As of February 1st, 2010, there are 4926 CDM projects in the CDM pipeline- meaning that a country has submitted a proposal on their CDM project activity for validation and/or registration by the CDM Executive Board. Of all the project activities, only 0,3% apply to the transport sector. The two transport projects currently in operation are the BRT-System in Bogotá, Columbia, and the other concerns the metro system in Delhi, India.
Copenhagen Accord NAMA Submissions: Implications for the Transport Sector
A week after the official deadline for submissions, the Bridging the Gap Initiative has analyzed the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) submissions for the Copenhagen Accord made by developing countries as of February 4th, 2010 (see attachment). 16 out of 25 countries made explicit reference to the transport sector.
This shows that transport gains increasingly importance on the agenda of climate change mitigation efforts. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of NAMAs submitted and classifies them according to transport measures proposed. The results find that submissions vary to a great extent in detail and specification, but the inclusion of transport is already a very positive sign. This can be seen as the will to act and Bridging the Gap will help developing countries in the expansion of further transport NAMAs.
The analysis will be updated as more NAMAs will be submitted. Stay tuned!
Transport is included in NAMA submissions
The Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) submitted by non-Annex I country Parties to the UNFCCC by the 31st of January were published on 2nd February 2010. The Bridging the Gap Initiative is analysing these submissions from a transport perspective. After a first view 11 out of the 20 Parties that made submissions made direct reference to the transport sector (inlc. E.g. Costa Rica, Indonesia, Singapore, Jordan, Republic of Congo, Moroco et. al.). The analysis will be available in the next few days.
Previous Newsletters
COP15 in Copenhagen in December 2009
Archive of our daily blog from COP15 online
The Bridging the Gap team wrote a daily blog article from COP15 in Copenhagen.
