Today the largest share of transport's CO2 emissions is emitted by industrialized countries and it is certain that they must accept the burden of emissions already past but if no action is taken most of the 80% increase estimated by the International Energy Agency (IEA data, 2008) by 2030 will come from road transport in developing countries.
Yvo de Boer, Secretary General of the UNFCCC, stressed this during the last Conference on Global Environment and Energy in Transport: (January 2009, Tokyo) "Given the role that transport plays in causing greenhouse gas emissions, any serious action on climate change must zoom in on the transport sector."
Climate change is only one of the major challenges being faced by mankind in the 21st cen-tury and in particular by fast growing Asian cities. Indeed how to reconcile economic growth and road transport is a key issue for today's policy and decision makers.
Transport and Climate Change
With Copenhagen only 11 weeks away urgent action on tackling climate change is needed now. This includes addressing greenhouse gas reduction potential from the transport sector. A "call for action" event on October 1 in Bangkok is being organized by an international partnership of transport experts and research institutes (GTZ, UITP, Veolia Transport and TRL) to increase the recognition of the land transport sec-tor in the climate negotiations.
Transport Sector Energy-Related CO2 -emissions by Region in the Reference Scenario (in million tons)
Climate is not the only reason to tackle road transport. Every day congestion on Bangkok roads shows that there is an urgent need to tackle transport problems, severely restricting efficiency and productivity, as well as being the main source for local air pollution.
It is therefore timely that from September 28 to October 9 2009, the UNFCCC negotiations that will take place in Bangkok at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC). This will be the last major meeting of the UNFCCC parties in preparation for the UN Climate Summit in December in Copenhagen, where a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol must be forged.
"The gobal goal to limit the average surface temperature increase to 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels cannot be achieved without a substantial contribution from the transport sec-tor. Transport accounts already for about one quarter of energy related CO2 emissions" says Holger Dalkmann, a transport expert from the "Bridging the Gap" Initiative. He is worried that transport will get left out of this new agreement. Transport has fared extremely badly when compared to most other highly polluting sectors such as energy or power and none of the Kyoto mechanisms give any incentive for governments in the developing world to take action to manage growing motorization.
High level political attention and appropriate financial mechanisms to mobilize global efforts are still lacking. Only 2 out of a total 1,700 approved Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects are assigned specifically to land transport. The only large scale CDM project in the transport sector is the Bus Rapid Transit System "TransMilenio" in Bogotá, Columbia. The example of Bogota shows that climate change mitigation in the transport sector can have numerous co-benefits and alleviate other negative impacts. This could also be achieved in Bangkok.
Strengthening energy efficient transport modes like public mass transit, walking and cycling as an alternative to car-use in particular makes cities more liveable and transport affordable for more people, but will also go a long way in addressing the need for change and reducing CO2 emissions from land transport.
On October 1st, the "Bridging the Gap" Initiative will hold an event on "Negotiating out of the Deadlock for Transport," in parallel to the climate change negotiations, at Royal Princess Larn Luang Hotel in Bangkok. The event will present suggestions for the inclusion of transport in the Copenhagen agreement, which include:
• Tap the high mitigation potential in the transport sector
• Explicitly mention the transport sector in the negotiating text;
• Support the development of transport related mitigation actions (NAMAs);
• Provide funding for transport related activities .e.g. improving public transport ;
• Recognize the important role of design of cities in efforts to adapt to climate change and tighten land-use and planning policies to stop unnecessary urban sprawl;
Developing solutions for sustainable, low-carbon transport is an important step towards cli-mate change mitigation. Urgent action is required now. Today, countries like Thailand still have the option to make decisions on transport infrastructure investments that will allow them to attain some levels of sustainable development - but current trends are not promising and decisions made today will lock cities into life style patterns for the next 30 years.
Contacts in Bangkok (available for interview):
• Contacts: Daniel Bongardt, GTZ - daniel.bongardt@gtz.de, +49 151 14073420
• Holger Dalkmann, TRL - hdalkmann@trl.co.uk
• Heather Allen, UITP - heather.allen@uitp.org
• Caroline Edant, Veolia Transport - Caroline.EDANT@veolia.com
The Initiative "Bridging the Gap: Pathways for Transport in a Post 2012 Process"
The Bridging the Gap" initiative has conducted a series of workshops and side events as well as produced policy papers linked to the UNFCCC climate change negotiation process. The ultimate aim is to get a better deal for land transport in Copenhagen agreement as it has missed out on all the carbon based financing mechanisms in the Kyoto protocol. This would give more incentives to developing countries to implement and promote sustainable transport solutions. Many other institutions support the work of the "initiative, including UNESCAP.
Find more Information on the "Bridging the Gap" please visit: www.sutp.org/bridgingthegap/
Short background information on Bridging the Gap Partners
The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) works to improve people's living conditions in developing countries. In the transport sector, GTZ has a series of source books and other tools for decision makers available for download (Sustainable Urban Transport Project. www.sutp.org) and runs frequent trainings on all aspects of sustai-nable transport. www.gtz.de/en/themen/28145.htm
Transport Research Laboratory (TRL): based in the UK, is one of the largest and most comprehensive independent centres for transport research globally. It provides practical ad-vice based upon high level research on sustainable transport and has been active in developing Post-2012 policy options for a low carbon future. www.trl.co.uk
UITP (The International Association of Public Transport) is the international network for public transport authorities and operators, policy decision-makers, scientific institutes and the public transport supply and service industry. It is a platform for worldwide cooperation, busi-ness development and the sharing of know-how between its 3,100 members from 90 coun-tries. UITP is the global advocate for public transport and sustainable mobility, and the pro-moter of innovations in the sector. www.uitp.org
Veolia Transport is a leading international operator of public transportation. Their vision is to set the standard for managing safe and sustainable mobility solutions. www.veolia-transport.com