Mobility as a Driver of Economic Development: Brazil Case Study

World Business Council for Sustainable Development
May 2009



This report was prepared for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as part of the Mobility for Development (M4D) project. This project builds on the WBCSD Sustainable Mobility report – Mobility 2030 – which defined sustainable mobility as “the ability to meet the needs of a society to move freely, gain access, communicate, trade and establish relationships without sacrificing other essential human or ecological values today or in the future”.

The M4D project aims to further investigate the challenges and opportunities associated with achieving sustainable mobility in the developing world through the conduct of four case studies in cities and associated regions at various stages of economic development, namely: Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, Bangalore in India, Shanghai in China, and São Paulo in Brazil. In particular, the study is designed to raise awareness and understanding of:

1. The importance of mobility as a driver of economic development

2. The opportunities to narrow the “mobility divide”

3. The need for sustainable mobility solutions for rapidly growing cities such as São Paulo.

The WBCSD has also defined a set of seven goals that it believes will improve the outlook for sustainable mobility. These seven goals are:

1. Ensure that emissions of transport-related conventional pollutants do not constitute a significant public health concern
2. Limit transport-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to sustainable levels
3. Significantly reduce the total number of road vehicle-related deaths and serious injuries from current levels in both the developed and the developing worlds
4. Reduce transport-related noise
5. Mitigate congestion
6. Narrow the “mobility opportunity divides” that inhibit the inhabitants of the poorest countries and members of economically and socially disadvantaged groups within nearly all countries from achieving better lives for themselves and their families
7. Preserve and enhance mobility opportunities for the general population of both developed and developing world countries.

The objectives of the São Paulo case study are to assess the status and outlook for sustainable mobility in light of the seven goals, based on experience to date as well as future plans for the São Paulo Metropolitan Region (SPMR).


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Other case studies:
India
Tanzania
China