Libro verde del transporte y cambio climático

Comisión de Transportes del Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos
Junio 2010

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A guide to reducing the impact of urban transport on the climate

Umwelt Bundes Amt
2010

Many towns and cities have made efforts to design urban transport strategies that are more environmentally friendly. UBA‘s new Guide to reducing the impact of urban transport on the climate outlines which action plans make for successful climate protection schemes. The guide emphasises measures with high climate protection potential that can be decided on by municipal administrations.

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Urban transport and climate change action plans

GIZ - SUTP
May 2011

More and more cities around the world are developing dedicated Climate Change Action Plans to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and improve the local air quality for their inhabitants. The transport sector usually plays a crucial role in any such strategy. In many cases, transportation is the primary source of CO2 and other GHGs, contributing up to 40 percent of the cities’ total emissions.

This paper summarises the measures outlined in Climate Change Action Plans of more than 30 cities in all continents. Its focus is on the actions proposed in the transport chapter of the relevant plans. However, in many cases other Urban Transport Planning documents (Transportation Master Plans, Land Use Plans, etc.) play a key role for implementing specific measures, while the Climate Action Plans outline the more general goals.

The measures initiated to reduce these negative impacts of urban transport take many forms. Increasing the share of public transport and non-motorised modes such as walking and cycling are core elements in many emission reduction strategies, but most often they are supplemented by other short-term and long-term measures. One key feature of most actions proposed is that they provide several co-benefits: many options not only reduce GHG emissions and improve air quality, but also enhance energy efficiency and – especially in the developing world – contribute to better transport services for the poor.

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Climate risk and business: Ports

IFC
April 2011

Physical infrastructure at ports and port activities may be highly vulnerable to changes in climate. For instance, the risks could manifest through changes in the level or patterns of shipping, increased flooding affecting movements within ports and causing damage to goods stored, reduced navigability of access channels and business interruption. Some ports will also see opportunities as a result of climate change. A port’s reputation for reliability is key to its success, so ports that are more resilient to disruption from climate events should fare better. Changes in trade flows driven by climate change will also see winners and losers. To understand the significance of these risks for a given port, this study assesses risks and opportunities for ports in general, and specifically for IFC’s client, Terminal Marítimo Muelles el Bosque (MEB), in Cartagena, Colombia.

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Climate for Change: Global warming & the automobile

A policy paper from the Alliance Internationale de Tourisme and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile

If CO2 emissions from passenger cars are to be reduced, there must be an effective strategy to promote fuel efficiency and to reduce car dependency. This will require policies that encourage the development of new vehicle and fuel technologies, persuade the consumer to purchase fuel economic vehicles and offer a greater choice of alternative transport options. It is vital to recognise that global warming is a shared problem, and must be dealt with in partnership. All sectors of transport have a role to play, including the regulatory and planning authorities whose decisions can have as great an impact on the environment as any actions by vehicle producers or users.

Representing some 100 million motorists worldwide, the AIT & FIA recognise the responsibility of all users of passenger cars to contribute to achieving the emissions reductions decided at the Kyoto Conference. Below, we set out a framework for achieving such reductions.

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Ver también:

Make Cars Green: Formula for the Environment

Mobility for all -Access/Sustainability/Safety- Roadmap to a better mobility

Green growth and transport

Stephen Perkins
International Transport Forum
Discussion paper 2011 - 02
February 2011

Transport figures prominently on green growth agendas. The reason is twofold. First, transport has major environmental impacts in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, local air emissions and noise. And managing congestion more effectively is part of the broader agenda for more sustainable development and better use of resources invested in infrastructure. Second, a large part of public expenditure to stimulate green growth is directed at transport sector industries. This concerns most notably alternative vehicles, and particularly electric cars, a key part of strategies to decarbonise transport. Several countries also financed car scrapping and replacement schemes as a short term response to the 2008 financial crisis. The primary goal here was counter‐cyclical stimulus for the car manufacturing industry with, in most cases, a secondary goal of reducing CO2 emissions and fuel consumption through fleet renewal.

Some governments also include investment in high speed rail as a central element of longer term green growth policies, aiming at a shift in passenger traffic from cars and short haul aviation to rail. Green growth is a useful paradigm that re‐packages several existing concepts, including durable economic activity, reduced environmental impact and sustained growth in high quality jobs, under one banner and in such a way as to frame coherent, cross‐sectoral policies. But focusing on green growth as such does not obviate the need for governments to assess policies carefully according to their long‐term economic, environmental and social impacts. There are tradeoffs between the various dimensions of green growth. Reducing emissions, for example, comes at a cost to road users and to taxpayers and as green growth policies spread it may be necessary to review the way the transport sector is taxed and contributes to aggregate tax revenue (Van Dender and Crist 2010).

This section of the report briefly examines policies to support electric vehicles, vehicle replacement schemes and high speed rail and reviews the political economy of introducing congestion charges from experience to date with charging systems around the world. It ends with a review of indicators developed for the assessment of transport investments and policies. Assessment methodology is relatively mature in this sector and the tools developed to support transport sector decision‐making in some countries provide a good basis for the assessment of green growth apolicies cross the economy.

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Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters: The economics of effective prevention

Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery - GFDRR
World Bank
United Nations
2010

Earthquakes, droughts, floods, and storms are natural hazards, but unnatural disasters are the deaths and damages that result from human acts of omission and commission. Every disaster is unique, but each exposes actions—by individuals and governments at different levels—that, had they been different, would have resulted in fewer deaths and less damage. Prevention is possible, and this book examines what it takes to do this cost-effectively.

Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters looks at disasters primarily through an economic lens. Economists emphasize self-interest to explain how people choose the amount of prevention, insurance, and coping. But lenses can distort as well as sharpen images, so the book also draws from other disciplines: psychology to examine how people may misperceive risks, political science to understand voting patterns, and nutrition science to see how stunting in children after a disaster impairs cognitive abilities and productivity as adults much later. It asks not only the tough questions, but some unexpected ones as well: Should all disasters be prevented? Do disasters increase or decrease conflict? Does foreign aid help or hinder prevention? The answers are not obvious. Peering into the future, it finds that growing cities and a changing climate will shape the disaster prevention landscape. While it is cautious about the future, it is not alarmist.

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Adapting Urban Transport to Climate Change

Module 5f - Sustainable Transport: A Sourcebook for Policy-makers in Developing Cities

Urda Eichhorst

SUTP

GTZ

This module of the GTZ Sourcebook for Decision-Makers in Developing Cities is intended to raise awareness, describe the expected impacts of climate change on urban passenger transport(1) (Section 2 and 3) and provide an orientation on how to integrate climate proofing into urban transport planning and policy implementation (Section 4). The Paper concludes with a discussion on synergies between adaptation and mitigation (Section 5).

Although the transport sector lies at the heart of urban conglomerations, little attention has been paid specifically to the vulnerabilities of the urban transport system. Nevertheless a few studies on the overall impacts of climate change on transport have emerged in recent years in Europe and North America. This paper gives an overview of these findings and sets them in the context of adaptation in developing cities.

(1)

Although many impacts on freight transport are similar to passenger transport, in particular regarding transport infrastructure, freight transport is subject to different dynamics and requires a separate assessment, which is beyond the scope of this paper.

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Vision 2050: The new agenda for business

World Business Council for Sustainable Development
February 2010

The Vision 2050 report ( 2.6 MB) lays out a pathway leading to a global population of some 9 billion people living well, within the resource limits of the planet by 2050. This work results from an 18-month combined effort with CEOs and experts, and dialogues with over 200 companies and external stakeholders in some 20 countries.

The report spells out the “must haves” – the things that must happen over the coming decade to make a sustainable planetary society possible. These include incorporating the costs of externalities, starting with carbon, ecosystem services and water, into the structure of the marketplace; doubling agricultural output without increasing the amount of land or water used ; halting deforestation and increasing yields from planted forests: halving carbon emissions worldwide (based on 2005 levels) by 2050 through a shift to low-carbon energy systems and improved demand-side energy efficiency, and providing universal access to low-carbon mobility.

Vision 2050, with its best-case scenario for sustainability and pathways for reaching it, is a tool for thought leadership, a platform for beginning the dialogue that must take place to navigate the challenging years to come.

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English document
Documento en español: Una nueva agenda para los negocios

Mobilidad: P. 39

Integrating sustainability into Transport

Professor John Whitelegg
Stockholm Environment Institute
University of York
Presented in October 2007 - National Transport Conference - London

There are two ways of embarking on a discussion of sustainability in transport. One is primarily concerned with defining sustainability (usually through a discussion of climate change) and then detailing the seriously unsustainable trends we are currently experiencing and finishing with a flourish about how we could change trajectory and solve the problem through some serious policy changes. This route is well rehearsed in the transport policy literature and has had no impact whatsoever on changing trends. The other approach is to exploit the very large scenario literature, backcasting methodology and “visioning” tools that exist and paint a picture of what things could be like and how we would get there. In this paper I will explore this second approach and define sustainability and its links with transport through a vision of a future that is not very far away. This future will be presented as a picture of transport in the UK in 2030. This possible future, I will argue, has to be rooted in sustainability and this in turn requires a strongly practical integration of sustainability into the transport sector.

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Climate change: turning costs into income opportunities

UNCTAD Policy Briefs #9
December 2009

Concerns about the high costs of climate change mitigation dominate the global debate to be resumed at Copenhagen. The question of who is to pay for the investments that will undoubtedly be needed receives far greater attention than the corollary question of who is to gain from them. From a macroeconomic perspective, one economic agent’s cost is always another agent’s income. But as this policy brief argues, the concept of cost is misleading in the context of climate change mitigation. Once the process of structural change necessitated by climate change mitigation is in full swing, there will be huge new market opportunities.

The policy issue is: how will costs and incomes be distributed in this process? UNCTAD believes that developing countries, although they face considerable costs, can also generate new income if they adapt their development strategies to the requirements of climate change mitigation. This policy brief also stresses the role of government in facilitating the process of structural change, not only by fostering “green” consumer preferences, but also by implementing pro-active industrial policies that support the production of climate-friendly equipment and appliances. In short: The world can move to a low-carbon economy without feeling paralysed by the costs – and can do so without sacrificing growth in the developing world.

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Greenhouse gas emission trends and projections in Europe 2009: Tracking progress towards Kyoto targets

European Environment Agency

EEA Report No 9
November 2009

This report presents an assessment of the current and projected progress of EU Member States, EU candidate countries and other EEA member countries towards their respective targets under the Kyoto Protocol and of progress towards the EU target for 2020. This is based on their past greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2007, and the projected greenhouse gas emissions of these countries during the Kyoto commitment period 2008-2012 and for 2020, derived from data and related information they provided before 1 June 2009.

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Maritime Transport and the Climate Change Challenge

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
16–18 February 2009, Geneva
Multi-Year Expert Meeting on Transport and Trade Facilitation:
Maritime Transport and the Climate Change Challenge
UNCTAD
December 2009

To support global efforts and to help "deliver as one" under the United Nations-wide system, the meeting provides a platform for informal discussions on how best to address the climate change challenge from a maritime transport perspective, while bearing in mind issues of interest to developing countries.

Key issues to be discussed include:

• Greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping;
• Implications of climate change for shipping and transport infrastructure: the need for adaptation;
• Mitigation and adaptation options for ships and ports;
• The current state of play in terms of the relevant regulatory and institutional framework; and
• Cross-cutting issues, such as financing and investment, technology and energy security.

Event site

Summary of proceedings

Report of the meeting

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