MoU to Take Action Towards Climate-Friendly Public Transport

GIZ is proud to announce it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance sustainable urban mobility in our collaboration with partner governments and stakeholders around the world.

Under the MoU, UITP will share knowledge and content from their broad membership base with GIZ Projects on different urban transport and mobility issues. GIZ and UITP will combine their efforts in training programmes and jointly develop studies on issues such as bus fleet modernisation, bus operations, bus-sector reforms, and financing.

The Transport and Climate Change Week 2020 (March 2-6) served as the perfect platform for the new MoU. In the context of the MobiliseYourCity Partnership, UITP/EBRD/GIZ jointly organised a workshop on Bus Fleet Renewal to present strategies towards climate-friendly bus fleets.

In the coming years, many local authorities need to replace older bus fleets at an accelerated pace to reach the targets on the transition to a decarbonised and climate neutral bus fleet. The objective of the workshop was to provide guidance and international examples on various elements of bus fleet renewal, such as funding fleet renewal, technology options, and regulatory needs. The workshop saw the premiere of UITP’s Checklist Bus Fleet Renewal: a decision support tool for bus operators, municipalities, and PTA’s in the process of bus fleet renewal. More than 30 participants from over 15 countries joined the 2 day workshop.

With support from UITP, GIZ also oversees the Action towards Climate-friendly Transport (ACT) coalition, which was launched at the UN Climate Summit 2019. It is the largest global coalition aiming to catalyse transport as an enabler of sustainable development in line with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. The coalition delivers on its goals by connecting innovative approaches with integrated long-term planning, accelerating the deployment of electric buses in cities around the world (see, for example, the TUMI VOLT initiative).

GIZ is looking forward to an increased collaboration with UITP and its members towards climate-friendly public transport.