UN Economic and Social Development
Division for Sustainable Development

ADB-ESCAP Workshop on Transport and Climate Change

Bangkok, Thailand, 25 September 2009

Summary

Over 50 participants from developing and developed countries met to discuss strategies to promote a more sustainable low carbon development path for the transport sector in developing Asia.

Presentations and discussions emphasized the need for an integrated approach which simultaneously addresses local problems such as air pollution, congestion and road safety as well as tackling the global problem of climate change.

It again became clear that several developing countries are already in the midst of campaigns to make transport more sustainable. Increasingly, traditional road building programs are replaced or matched by strengthening of public transport systems. This new approach is also reflected in the assistance provided by development organizations such as the Asian Development Bank which reported on its efforts to strengthen sustainability of its transport lending.

The workshop reaffirmed the need for increased efforts on capacity building, technology assessment and finance; the three of the main building blocks of the Bali Action Plan.

Background

Transport is the fastest growing sector of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in developing countries. It is imperative that the new climate agreement to be concluded in Copenhagen in December 2009 at COP 15 will enable and catalyze action to control the growth in emissions from the transport sector.

The next round of climate talks will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from 28 September to 9 October, 2009. This round of the climate talks will focus on refining the draft negotiation text developed by the AWG on Long Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and the AWG on Future Commitments of Annex 1 countries under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP).  Following the Bangkok meeting there will be another round of discussions in Barcelona prior to COP 15 in December 2009 in Copenhagen.

Objectives

Over the last year several events have been organized to convey the urgency to address transport in the new climate agreement and the modalities how to best accomplish such. The proposed 25th September event is another step in the stakeholder dialogue process to with negotiators and other relevant stakeholders in the climate negotiations.

The objectives for the 25th September event are:

1. Climate negotiators and senior transport officials are increasingly convinced of the importance that the new climate agreement is fully applicable to the transport sector;
2. Clarify the role of transport in the envisaged enhanced action on:
   (a) adaptation,
   (b) mitigation, and
   (c) financing, technology and capacity building.
3. Discuss the role of revised and new post 2012 climate instruments: CDM, Sectoral Crediting, Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), and Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV)

The event in Bangkok will serve as an important step in developing an understanding of the activities that the transport and climate community will have to undertake after COP 15 to support the development of detailed guidelines for instruments agreed upon in principle in Copenhagen.