The SLoCaT Partnership activities improve the knowledge on sustainable low carbon transport, help develop better policies and catalyze their implementation. Over 50 organizations have joined the Partnership, including UN organizations, multilateral development banks, technical cooperation agencies, NGOs, research organizations and other organizations.
The World Bank has published a working paper titled “Urban Transport and CO2 emissions: Some evidence from Chinese cities” that seeks to establish a baseline for carbon dioxide transport-related emissions in China. The paper shows that growth in carbon emissions in transport have so far outpaced the carbon dioxide emission reduction achieved by vehicle efficiency and fuel performance improvements. The study also found that the level of urban transport-related carbon dioxide emissions varies significantly not only among cities of different levels of per capita income, but also among cities of similar income level. This implies that in addition to the motorization level that is generally associated with per capita income, other policy factors such as priority to public transport and restriction on private cars are also significant determinants of carbon dioxide emissions.
Download the report here.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing Georgia $300 million in loans for an urban transport overhaul which will ease chronic traffic congestion, improve the environment, and boost growth and jobs in its cities.
The ADB’s Board of Directors today approved a multitranche financing facility which will help fund part of the government’s huge urban investment program, earmarked at $1.1 billion between now and 2020.
The ADB is the first multilateral development bank to estimate the carbon footprint of its transport sector assistance, which this report identifies as 792 million tons for the projects supported by ADB between 2000-2009, about equal to the annual land transport emissions of Thailand. With the report, ADB breaks new ground in identifying various ways to measure how much its transport sector activities contribute to climate change as a function of the nature and cost of the infrastructure it invests in and the amount of mobility that infrastructure provides for passengers and freight. The report shows that local pollution reduction and CO2 reduction are correlated. Three-fourths of ADB’s transport sector investments in the past decade have been in building expressways and the report finds these substantially increase CO2 emissions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released the final list of climate change experts who will prepare the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) to be published between 2013 and 2014. The list includes Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors and Review Editors.
Ten of the world’s leading architects show how integrating urban planning with transport can enable cities to thrive, while also combating climate change and managing population growth, in a global exhibition that kicks off in New York on June 24, 2010. Our Cities Ourselves: The Future of Transportation in Urban Life showcases the transformative potential of designing streets and cities around the needs of people rather than around the needs of private cars. Our Cities Ourselves illustrates how the dream of a sustainable, equitable and livable urban future can be realized when transport is a core foundation. Read on...
Subsidizing fossil fuels seriously undermines ongoing efforts to deal with climate change – subsidies distort energy prices, encourage wasteful consumption, increase global greenhouse gas emissions and impede investment in renewable energy sources. Such subsidies particularly affect transportation investments and choices. But in September 2009, Pittsburgh, G-20 leaders committed to phasing out and rationalizing their inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that lead to wasteful consumption. On 26-27 June, 2010, leaders are set to meet again for the first time since making that commitment. The Global Subsidies Initiative of the International Institute for Sustainable Development has issued a policy brief summarizing what G-20 countries have done so far, and what else needs to be done to deliver on that commitment, including 3 recommended actions G-20 leaders should take in Toronto
On 9th of June Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank hosted a side event on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn.
