Peer-to-peer dialogues for more climate ambition in transport

Bringing together sector representatives to address climate strategies in transport

“I ask you all to take whatever actions you can, as citizens, experts, managers, and policy makers, to seize the unique opportunity presented by COVID to “build forward better” and put transport firmly on track for a safe, sustainable low carbon recovery.”

Gloria Hutt, Chilean Minister for Transport and Telecommunications

Since COP25 in 2019, the increase in climate action has been the international community’s call. Being the fastest growing emitter and responsible for almost a fifth of global emissions, the transport sector needs to finally change course and bring emissions down, consistent with the national and global goals in the short-, mid-, and long-term.

On the other hand, the impact of COVID-19 at the global level poses a new challenge: developing recovery plans consistent with the current urgency and the climate targets as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, the call for a Green Recovery and to “build forward better” must also permeate sectoral plans, in which sustainable transport strategies can play a relevant role.

In that sense, the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications of Chile, Gloria Hutt, announced during the opening of the En Route to COP26 event the realisation of a series of peer-to-peer technical exchanges for the transport sector. They will be held during the year 2021 as part of Chile’s UNFCCC COP Presidency and supported by GIZ through its project Moving Chile.

These events will bring together representatives of Ministries of Transport and Environment from the Latin American and Caribbean region to learn from each other and exchange on successful approaches, implementation strategies, and available tools for decarbonising transport and seeking a green recovery.

The exchanges will also seek to enable cooperation and contribute to building a technical network in the region to advance a shared view for the future on how sustainable transport can be achieved.

Thanks to the support of the German Ministry of Environment (BMU) and the assistance of GIZ, the peer exchange dialogues will also be offered in Africa and Asia in 2021.

In the Asian region, the peer exchanges will be led by the NDC Transport Initiative for Asia; in Africa, the regional dialogue will be organised under the Advancing Transport Climate Strategies (TraCS), both projects of GIZ.

The dialogue series will provide a platform for peer exchange and networking to support transport ministries to become more involved in the formulation and implementation of their countries’ Paris Agreement aligned low-carbon development strategies and recovery plans.