The commitment is aiming at tracking, monitoring and projecting GHG and local pollutant emissions, energy use, and cost of the transport sector globally to assess the progress of sustainable transport worldwide. Past trends and future possible evolutions are key to understand where the transport sector is heading and to evaluate its sustainability. As the modeling framework is developed and finalized, better and more accurate data will help gauge the transport sustainability for its environmental and economic pillars. Through the commitment, IEA is pledging for better modeling capabilities of modal shifting, and is planning for a possible focus on urban areas.

Greenhouse gases, energy use and pollutant emissions are part of the modeling framework, and allow having a more comprehensive vision of the environmental pillar of sustainable mobility. The economic aspect is addressed in the model by costing out the cost of the transport sector, for vehicles, fuel and infrastructure needed for its operation in the four decades to come.

A team of analysts at the IEA is working at making the model better and more accurate, together with other international organizations from private and public sectors, and receiving help of NGOs and academia. Data gathering and quality control is an important asset of the IEA mobility modeling task, and is fundamental in order to assess the sustainability of the transport sector. This will be strengthened through the next phases of the model development. The IEA is looking after improving the model capabilities regarding modal shifting potential, especially in urban areas.
Previous work of the IEA highlighted the fact that technological improvement and behavior changes are both needed and are complimentary in order to reach a sustainable transport sector; the task detailed under this voluntary commitment will significantly improve the capabilities of the model for better quantification

International Energy Agency (IEA)