Issue 1/2010, January 2010

Dear Readers,

We wish you a happy new year 2010 and hope it will bring good news for sustainable development in the transport sector. In December, GTZ, UITP, Veolia Transport and TRL's Initiative Bridging the Gap: Pathways for Transport in a Post 2012 Process was very active and attended the UNFCCC climate conference in Copenhagen (COP15) and raised awareness for transport in UNFCCC negotiations. You might have followed our daily blog, which is still online and we published on January 14^th, 2010 a report about the outcome from COP15 and draw first conclusion for the transport sector. As in Copenhagen no final agreement on a Post 2012 climate policy was concluded, we will continue putting transport on the agenda during next year and provide relevant information to you. A first attempt is a short guidance document on submitting transport NAMAs to the UNFCCC until January 31, 2010. There is an urgent need for action!Please do not hesitate to forward this newsletter to others that may be interested in transport and climate change.

The Copenhagen Accord provides an opportunity for non-Annex I country Parties to submit a list of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) by the 31^st January 2010, for inclusion within Appendix II of the Accord. The'Bridging the Gap' initiative has developed a guidance document for Parties on the submission of NAMAs in the transport sector, providing an overview of the potential mitigation actions, at national and sub-national level, that could be included within NAMA submissions.

The recent United Nations conference on climate change that took place in Copenhagen in December 2009 was attended by over 40,000 stakeholders, with more than 100 Heads of State. An expectation of the COP15 conference was the delivery of an international agreement on a post 2012 international climate regime after two years of intense negotiations.

The paper provides a brief overview of the outcome of the UN conference and a discussion of the implications of decisions made there in respect to the transport sector, and how transport can play a more defining role in addressing climate change.

On December 11, Around 60 participants attended our last Side Event in COP15 on "Shaping the Future of Urban Transport". It was a combine event of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Bridging the Gap Initiative and the Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLOCAT). The workshop that took place at the ICLEI climate lounge were discussing both, adaptation and mitigation in urban transport.

On December 10 the Bridging the Gap initiative's official side event presented recent thinking from transport and climate change experts about how a framework can be put in place that will enable land transport to receive the finance, capacity building and technology it needs to implement effective mitigation and adaptation measures. The event was supported by Party negotiators, Alvaro Umaña Quesada (Costa Rica), Brice Lalonde (France), Shumani Mugeri (South Africa) and Raekwon Chung (Republic of Korea),who kindly appeared to provide their own statements regarding the importance of appropriate actions within the transportation sector.

On December 7 the initiative hosted its first event in COP15 within the European Pavilion. We were very pleased to see 50 people chose to attend our event over the opening ceremony reflecting the importance of transport in the climate change talks. We took the opportunity to present a background of urban transport in the EU and developing countries. Key messages included the overlapping issue of implementing avoid-, shift- and improve-strategies and that communication is required to engage action in transport development.

On 5 December, 400 high level EcoPassengers: climate change negotiators, rail business leaders, environmental activists, journalists and a group of Young Climate Champions on board of the Climate Express arrived in Copenhagen for COP 15 via the most sustainable travel mode. Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General of the International Union of Railways (UIC), the initiator of this special train using only renewable energy together with Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme and James P. Leape, Director General of WW were aboard. Hans Rat (UITP Secretary General) and Alan Flausch (UITP President) as well as several of the Bridging the Gap partners also took this train.

The Bridging the Gap team wrote a daily blog from COP15 in Copenhagen. You still get an impression what happened in negotiation side events and the corridors.

Many transport decision-makers in developing countries are already confronted with extreme weather events, such as flooding, subsidence and storms, all of which are expected to increase with climate change. In the worst case, transportation systems may not be able to recover between such events, resulting in exponential damages.

The Transport Section of GTZ has analyzed the 51 transport chapters out of 71 Technology Need Assessments (TNA), available on the UNFCCC webpage. They were submitted mainly between 2000 and 2005. The analysis gives interesting insights: Other than the TNA Handbook suggests, not only "hard", vehicle-related technologies, but public transport and urban planning skills play an important role for a sustainable, low carbon development in developing countries. The short paper also suggests how to best consider transport in TNAs. And check your countries performance and needs!

Some of our Key Documents are now available in Japanese language and can be downloaded here:

The 2009 International Fuel Prices report provides an overview of the retail prices of gasoline and diesel in more than 170 countries, discusses pricing policies, presents case studies on the impact of high and volatile fuel prices in 2007/2008 in developing countries and provides access to numerous additional resources. (114 pages, over 450 graphs and figures). Available on www.gtz.de/fuelprices

OECD and the International Transport Forum Working Group has released a report that includes the preliminary findings of a work group exploring transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction strategies. The final report will be released in 2010.

In the most recent UNEP Perspectives Series, Christian Ellermann from Ecofys recently published a study on sectoral no-lose targets in urban transport. The case study focuses on a recent project of Ecofys and the Energy Research Institute exploring the opportunities for baseline development and definition of reduction targets in Beijing's transport system. The text is available for free download

The Center for Clean Air Policy released the final draft of their paper, "Transportation NAMAs: A Proposed Framework." This paper discusses the importance of addressing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector in developing countries and suggests that supported NAMAs provide an important opportunity to truly transform the transportation sector in many countries.

The post 2012 Climate Instruments in the transport sector (CITS) project implemented by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in cooperation with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is a first step to help ensure that the transport sector can benefit from the revised/new climate change mitigation instruments under a post-2012 Climate Change Agreement. The CITS project is a contribution to the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport. A draft report has been published for comments.

Connie Hedegaard, the EU's incoming climate policy chief, pledged to tackle transport emissions during a confirmation hearing in the European Parliament on Friday (15 January), saying she would table an integrated legislative package on climate and transport during her mandate.

Hosted at the Inter-American Development Bank, in partnership with the Asian Development Bank, the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), and EMBARQ - The WRI Center for Sustainable Transport, the second day of the Transforming Transportation event was aimed at providing a forum for the transport, climate, and development communities to discuss the outcomes from the 2010 climate summit in Copenhagen and significance for national and local policy making in the transport sector; the connection between climate change and other drivers of transport interventions in developing countries; and how the transport community can best engage in solving the challenges caused by climate change.

16-17 March, 2010, Seoul, Republic of Korea,
International Expert Group Meeting:
United Nations Forum on Climate Change Mitigation, Fuel Efficiency and Sustainable Urban Transport

22-26 March, 2010, Rio de Janeiro
World Urban Forum

3 - 14 May, 2010 New York
CSD 18 Session: 4th Implementation Cycle: Review Session

24-28 May, 2010, Manila Philippines
ADB Transport Forum and Partnership Meeting, week

26-28 May 2010, Leipzig, Germany
TRANSPORT AND INNOVATION: UNLEASHING THE POTENTIAL

31 May to 11 June, 2010, Bonn, Germany
32nd session of the UNFCCC Convention subsidiary bodies
INCLUDES Bridging the Gap Side Event

7 June, 2010, Bonn Germany
SAVE THE DATE (!): Open seminar of the Bridging the Gap Initiative on Transport and Climate Change in parallel to the UNFCCC meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies

29 November - 10 December, Mexico City
COP 16 is expected to be held in Mexico from 29 November 2010 to 10 December 2010.

Since COP14 in Poznan, GTZ, UITP, TRL and Veolia Transport aim to'bridge the gap' between the transport sector and the climate change negotiations process. The joint initiative is conducting a series of workshops and side events linked to the negotiation process in order to make a Post 2012 agreement work for the land transport sector and promote sustainable solutions for developing countries.

Our initiative's website www.transport2012.org provides an overview of our activities, publications, past events and information on related upcoming events.

To encourage international action to slow down CO2 emissions from the transport sector, several international organizations have decided to join forces for the recognition that transport can and should play in mitigating GHG emissions. This includes Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport launched by the UNDESA, the Asian Development Bank and other international organizations.

Subscription: Please visit our webpage: www.transport2012.org

Contact:

For further information, please contact
Mr Daniel Bongardt (daniel.bongardt@gtz.de)
Ms. Heather Allen (heather.allen@uitp.com)
Mr Holger Dalkmann (hdalkmann@trl.co.uk)
Ms Caroline Edant (caroline.edant@veolia.com)

Partner Websites: