Over the past years, many measures have been adopted to reduce climate change impact worldwide, at regional and national level as well as in cities. Industry and transport are the biggest polluters with greenhouse gas emissions. To meet environmental objectives, change must occur in these sectors.
A year after the Paris Agreement became effective, adopted by 196 UNFCCC member countries, 27,000 participants debated the problems and challenges raised by climate change in Bonn, Germany, where the 23rd edition of the conference COP23 took place.
Speeding up the implementation of projects to meet the Paris Agreement objectives and those of the 2030 Agenda on the Sustainable Development Objectives was the joint message of COP23 participants. Apart from the negotiations between the parties involved in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, new initiatives were adopted, as well as commitments and partnerships in sectors such as energy, agriculture, water, transport, industry and so on. Financing measures were also adopted, some of them for the EcoMobility Alliance, the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative, which accelerates the deployment of urban transport and tackles climate change.
According to the latest data on emissions, the transport system ranks second being responsible for generating 23% of total emissions. A 71% growth (compared to the 1990 level) was caused by road transport which accounts for three quarters of transport emissions. Under these circumstances, the fight against global warming becomes a fight against transport habits, priorities and choices. Politicians should take the lead in creating a transport system that would not harm the environment, while meeting our requirements for mobility, as well as economic and social needs.
Within COP23, shifting traffic to sustainable transport systems has been a key point in reaching the environmental objectives established by the countries involved. Thus, the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance was launched, six new initiatives on the “transport-environment” approach report were presented within C40 mayors, representing 25 cities with over 150 million citizens. Participants have also committed to develop and implement, by the end of 2020, new actions on reducing climate change impact, the cities and communities jointly declaring that they will coordinate new measures to reach more effective and a lot faster results.
Reports, analyses and statistics show the importance of changing the transport system to more sustainable habits, railways and electric-road ranking among the first transport modes considered to be sustainable. As sustainable infrastructure is also developed or upgraded, as it happens for railways, and services become more and more flexible, meeting mobility demands, they will clearly determine the creation of different habits that will ultimately lead to more sustainable transport choices.
Editorial by:
Pamela Luica
Chief Editor
Railway PRO
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