Transport
Photo by Mado El Khouly on Unsplash
Photo by Phuoc Anh Dang on Unsplash
The transportation sector is among the “hard-to-decarbonize” sectors along with heavy industry and residential heating. In many developing countries, it is growing rapidly, and the infrastructure being built today to accommodate this demand can lock in emission pathways for decades to come. At the same time, low-emission transportation is not a mere technical fix: switching to electric cars and trucks in view of the growing demand is likely to overstretch the capacities of current energy systems.
Ensuring that transportation contributes appropriately to nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and LTSs is intimately connected to energy policies, but also to planning settlements and supply chains. Finally, transportation policies often touch upon the question of social justice and the need to put the demands of vulnerable groups first. The LEDS GP’s Transport Working Group strives to grasp and address this complex challenge by contributing to sound data collection, ambitious leadership, the development of workable integrated solutions, and green recovery from deep strains of the pandemic.
Despite the urgent need to make the rapidly growing transportation sector climate-friendly, this sector has not received sufficient attention in NDCs. During the 2019 Global NDC Conference, the Transport Working Group convened a breakout session to advance integrated transport and energy policy responses. The LEDS GP is committed to identifying linkages and fostering innovative policies that can advance ambitious climate action. Government officials from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay shared their experience and common challenges. The importance of involving energy ministries as well as civil society actors emerged as central learnings, as well as a need for fostering leadership – a recommendation which the Partnership has started putting into practice.
The pandemic is putting additional pressure on climate policy – strained public budgets and uncertainty for private sector actors are just two of the added challenges. Pursuing ´inclusive green recovery´ policies can accelerate climate and development action. The LEDS GP’s Transport Working Group convened an online workshop on green recovery in the Asian transportation sector in 2020. Expert speakers introduced participants to the green recovery options for the sector and explained how this links to national climate goals. Please find out more in the presentation here.
The Asia LEDS Partnership supported Sri Lanka in developing a framework for a national electric mobility policy, which was completed in November 2019. Please find the entire report here
Political leadership is invaluable for achieving an ambitious shift in the transportation sector. This is why the LEDS Transport Working Group initiated the Asia Clean Mobility High Ambition Leadership Group in 2021, reaching out to ministry officials and other sector decision-makers to join and exchange ideas for zero-emission mobility in this peer-learning community. In March and April 2021, the network invited several officials of the Transport Ministries of Asian countries to broaden participation.
To dive deeper into the LEDS GP’s activities on transportation, please visit the LEDS GP website and the LEDS LAC pages (in Spanish) for the Communities of Practice on Electric Mobility and Clean Logistics in Latin America and the Caribbean.