Five years have passed since the leaders of 196 nations signed the Paris Agreement and committed themselves to limiting global heating to well below 2°C and, if possible, to below 1.5°C.
The decarbonisation and transformation of the transport sector remains essential for achieving the Paris targets, as transport still accounts for 24% of global CO2 emissions from fuel combustion (IEA 2020).
Over the last five years the Changing Transport team has been working hard to foster climate action and support the implementation of the Paris Agreement within the global transport community. In this article we provide an overview of important project activities.
Currently, emissions from transport in countries such as Vietnam, Kenya and Morocco are still relatively low. However, motorisation rates are rising rapidly in these countries due to economic development and population growth. Laying the groundwork today for sustainable transport is therefore essential.
With the support of the Advancing Transport Climate Strategies (TraCS) project, Vietnam, Kenya and Morocco have precisely quantified their transport emissions, have developed reduction scenarios and have incorporated concrete measures in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Other countries can harness GIZ’s Six Action Recommendations to foster enhanced climate ambition in transport.
In order to better understand transport’s relevance to the Paris Agreement, TraCS is working with the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLOCAT) to assess the role of transport in the newly updated NDCs. To this end, GIZ and SLOCAT will rely on their joint NDC database.
The TRANSfer project paves the way for additional climate financing in the transport sector. So far, the project has prepared ten mitigation actions in eight countries and has implemented seven more. Some 1.2 billion euros of public funds in partner countries and 350 million euros in climate finance have been mobilised. The implemented measures are expected to save 100 Mt CO2e over the next 10 years.
Our standardised knowledge resources, such as our recently published toolkits, help countries to prepare measures faster and more effectively, until they are eligible for financing and ready for implementation.
The annual Transport and Climate Change Week facilitates exchange between transport practitioners in developing countries with their counterparts in emerging economies.
The MobiliseYourCity Partnership is a global climate initiative for integrated urban mobility planning. Established concurrent to the Paris Agreement by Germany, France and the EU, the partnership aims to support cities worldwide in the transition to sustainable transport. To date, 38 million euros in grant funding have been raised to support over 60 partner cities and 14 countries. Thanks to this funding, it has been possible to mobilise more than 800 million euros to date.
You can read more about the impacts and achievements of the past five years here.
EUROCLIMA+ supports the development of national policies and funding programmes, as well as pilot projects and sustainable urban transport plans through more than 20 projects in currently 18 Latin American countries. This lays the groundwork for concrete NDC action in the transport sector.
Capacities in national and local governments and transport sector stakeholders have been strengthened through the support of a participatory process for urban mobility policy development and planning aligned with national climate policies. The regional Community of Practice and international events provided the opportunity to showcase ambitions of Latin American countries, to exchange experience and knowledge through webinars and to promote the dissemination and replication of effective action measures.
More information about EUROCLIMA+ here (also available in Spanish).
Moving Chile supports the Chilean Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications and the Ministry of Environment in developing a funding mechanism for electric mobility. At the international level, it is helping to raise the ambition of the NDCs and the LTS sector through technical and policy regional dialogues.
Chile’s NDCs now include transport-related emission reduction targets and measures with an estimated reduction potential of about 11 Mt CO2 eq. This represents 17% of Chile’s projected decarbonisation emissions scenario for 2050.
The NDC Transport Initiative for Asia supports India, China and Vietnam in developing integrated climate strategies and tangible measures in the transport sector. At the regional level, a Council for Decarbonising Transport in Asia is being established to strengthen the discourse on opportunities for an emissions trend reversal. China recently announced its decarbonisation target for 2060, which is now to be implemented in the transport sector. Activities in India were kicked off virtually in August 2020. In Vietnam, the project participants will work with the Ministry of Transport to develop a roadmap for e-mobility and build a comprehensive Transparency Framework for Transport.
Power to X extends renewable energy to applications still dependent on fossil resources. The conversion of renewable energy to green hydrogen and then into synthetic fuels will enable the use of green energy in maritime transport, aviation, and industry. In this way, PtX can make an important contribution to international climate protection, reducing dependence on oil and natural gas worldwide.
In cooperation with its partners, the International PtX Hub aims to catalyse a global breakthrough in the adoption of sustainably produced synthetic PtX fuels and feedstocks.
Thank you for accompanying us on our journey and helping us to change the transport sector. For ultimately, we must work together to transform transport.
© UN Photo/Mark Garten
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