Climate change is one of the major challenges being faced by mankind in the 21^st century. The dramatic effects of climate change are already being felt and include wide-spread melting of glaciers and ice caps, rising sea levels, changes in rainfall patterns, heat-waves and extreme weather events. Climate experts are warning that future effects will be even worse if no resolute action is taken now.

The global goal to limit the average surface temperature increase to 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels cannot be achieved without substantial contribution from the transport sector. Transport accounts for around one quarter of energy related carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Furthermore, a more than 50 % increase in global transport CO₂ emissions is expected in the period 2005 to 2030 (IEA, 2008).

The largest share of transport’s CO₂ emissions is still emitted from industrialised countries, but if no action is taken transport in developing countries will be responsible for more than 80% of the growth. This is mainly due to an increase in road transport (IEA, 2008).

Ivo de Boer, Secretary General of the UNFCCC, stressed the importance of transport’s climate change impact 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 will zoom in on the transport sector.”

Co-benefits of low-carbon transport

Climate change mitigation can have several co-benefits and alleviate other negative impacts of transportation. Especially strengthening energy efficient transport modes like public mass transit and non-motorised modes as an alternative to cars, would lead to better affordability, less pollutants, a reduction of noise, better access and less land consumption. Considering these co-benefits, greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction measures in the transport sector have a high potential to contribute to sustainability targets and commitments, such as the millennium development goals. The traditional response to increasing traffic – construction of more roads – has shown not to achieve the desired outcome but has led to even more traffic and more pollution instead. These dynamics of the traffic spiral show the importance of an alternative approach, the idea of sustainable transport systems (Bongardt et. al. 2009, p.12).

Strategies to reduce GHG emissions

Because of the numerous small emission sources, the transport sector is one of the most difficult sectors in which to reduce GHG emissions. The three key strategy responses to reduce emissions from transport are to avoid or reduce the distances travelled by motorised modes, the facilitation of a modal shift to more environmentally friendly transport alternatives or the improvement of energy efficiency of transport modes and vehicle technology. Action in any of these areas should receive support from funding mechanism of future climate agreements (GTZ 2007, p.5ff).

GHG reduction strategies go far beyond just improvements in vehicle technology. For sure, technological improvements might be a part of the “solution” but they should be embedded in a wider framework for facilitating a low carbon transport future. Economic instruments, for instance, such as emission trading, taxes, fees and road pricing as well as subsidies can be used to reduce the demand for travel, to discourage the use of motorised vehicles and to encourage the use of alternative modes in a long term perspective. Despite experts agree on the efficiency of economic instruments to manage transport demand they are rarely used in practice.

But further functional instruments to “drive” towards sustainability in the transport sector are available. Foremost, the integrated planning of land use and transport constitutes an approach to reduce the demand for travel and hence to meet the avoidance strategy. Regulatory instruments such as requirements, bans and rules can be used to restrict the use of certain motorised vehicles, to influence the type of vehicles used and the standards that they should comply with. Also creating public awareness by information is an instrument for promoting a sustainable transport system. For instance, greater public awareness of the available modes and their impact on the environment can lead to a mode shift to walking and cycling or to an improvement in people’s driving behaviour.

Climate Finance for Transport?

Improvements in the transport sector might, even though not necessarily, require significant amounts of investment which is especially a barrier to implement sustainable transport strategies in developing countries. The Kyoto protocol provides therefore funding mechanisms to foster climate change mitigation activities. One of the most well known mechanisms is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM allows industrialised countries with a GHG reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce GHG emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. A positive example for a successful CDM project is the Bus Rapid Transit System “TransMilenio” in Bogotá, Columbia. In general, Mayor Dr. Enrique Peñalosa’s transformation of Bogotá’s transport system is an outstanding example for sustainable urban development. Under his leadership from 1998 to 2000 innovative transport strategies were used to allow all citizens access to mobility and simultaneously to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. The present Bogotá is equipped with Latin America’s largest network of bicycle ways, the world’s longest pedestrian-only street and the planet’s biggest Car-Free Day. Dr. Peñalosa himself said: “In Bogotá, we chose to build a city for people, not for automobiles. Cities built for cars mobility suffer from congestion and unsafe street conditions and leave many residents with poor access to jobs. Instead of these problems, we gave our citizens enjoyable public spaces and unprecedented mobility.”

But experts claim that in principle CDM has failed in the transport sector. Only two out of a total 1,792 approved CDM projects are assigned specifically to land transport. Problems for the CDM in the transport sector are the complexity of many transport activities and the calculation of the GHG mitigation potential of the projects (Wuppertal Institute, WP 179. 2009, p.15). Behavioural or legal changes can barely be captured in the rather stringent CDM procedures that have been developed for single project approaches. For the calculations reliable data is needed, which appears to be particularly difficult for transport project activities, which are characterised by a high number of small and mobile emission sources. Generally, it is noticeable that appropriate financial mechanisms to mobilise global efforts as well as high-level political attention are still lacking.

Initiatives for low carbon transport

In December 2009, the UN Climate Conference (COP15) takes place in Copenhagen. This event creates the unique chance to ensure that transport is fully reflected in the new climate deal, the successor of the Kyoto protocol. In this context there are a number of initiatives aiming at low-carbon transport.

Since COP14 in Poznan, the “Bridging the Gap Initiative” by German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), Veolia Transport and International Association of Public Transport (UITP) brings together a number of relevant activities of various partners working on transport and climate related issues. The initiative aims to facilitate the link between the transport sector and the climate change negotiations and promotes the following suggestions for a post 2012 climate agreement:

• 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;
• Provide funding for transport related activities, e.g. improving public transport;
• Recognise 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.

And there are more initiatives: In May 2009 in Bellagio 21 representatives from 18 different organisations met to build a consensus on the required policy response to the growing CO₂ emissions from transport in the developing world. The meeting resulted in the Bellagio Declaration on Transportation and Climate Change. This also led to the formation of a sustainable low carbon transport partnership under the lead of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and UN-DESA. So far, more than 30 organisations signed the partnership statement.

The International Union of Railways (UIC) is organising a Train to Copenhagen communications campaign. During the symbolic one-month and nearly 9,000 kilometre long train journey from Kyoto to Copenhagen environmental experts and climate change campaigners will send eye-witness accounts of global warming signs underway. The Zero Carbon Caravan (ZCC) aims to carry the message of action on climate change to the UNFCCC talks in Copenhagen without using fossil fuel transportation.

Developing solutions for sustainable, low-carbon transport is an important step towards climate change mitigation. While industrialised countries finally have to cope with transport and change the trend of growing emissions, developing countries also have the option to make decisions on transport infrastructure investments that will allow them to attain some levels of sustainable development and prevent GHG emission in a long-term perspective. However, infrastructure decisions made today will lock cities into life style patterns for the next decades. For this reason, it is urgent take immediate action to tackle a route for reducing manmade CO₂ emissions from transport.

Author: Daniel Bongardt, Transport Policy Advisor – GTZ (German Technical Cooperation)

Daniel Bongardt works on sustainable transport and climate change policies. His experience covers transport policy and planning as well as international climate policy, impact assessment, and energy-efficiency policies.

Image: Hock

References

GTZ (2007): A Sourcebook for Policy-makers in Developing Cities, Transport and Climate Change (Module 5e), available from: http://www.sutp.org.

IEA – International Energy Agency (2008): World Energy Outlook 2008. IEA: Paris, available from: http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org.

Bongardt, D., Rudolph, F., Sterk, W. (2009): Transport in Developing Countries and Climate Policy: Suggestions for a Copenhagen Agreement and Beyond Sources, Wuppertal Institute, WP 179, available from: http://www.wupperinst.org/publikationen/wuppertal_papers/index.html

Further links:

Bridging the Gap Initiative http://www.sutp.org/bridgingthegap

Bellagio Declaration http://www.sutp.org/bellagio-declaration/

Sustainable Low Carbon Transport Partnership http://www.sutp.org/lowcarbontransport-partnership/

Train to Copenhagen http://www.traintocopenhagen.org

Zero Carbon Caravan http://zerocarboncaravan.net/