For almost two weeks, in November 2017, the city of Bonn, Germany, hosted the Conference on Climate Change 2017, COP23, where 27,000 leaders of governments, cities, the business environment, investors and non-profit organisations reunited to discuss on the acceleration of actions to meet the climate change objectives set by the Paris Agreement.
The Paris Agreement is the first global agreement with mandatory legal force for which 197 parties agreed in December 2015 to implement climate change measures. The agreement sets a global action plan to avoid climate change by limiting global warming under 2°C. Before and during the Conference in Paris, the states came up with comprehensive national plans to contribute to reaching the agreed objective. According to the United Nations, 171 of 197 parties ratified the Paris Agreement which became effective in November 2016.
During the COP23 conference in Bonn, the common message was to acknowledge the necessity to accelerate the implementation of actions to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement and of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Mobility. This means speeding up climate change measures mentioned in national action plans (NDC) which are the base of the Agreement. Important measures were announced during COP23, including financing to support various programmes and projects aimed to tackle climate change. By negotiating in Bonn, participant countries and parties announced new action plans and committed to implement measures in areas such as energy, agriculture, industry, transport and others. Also, 25 countries, among which Canada, Finland, Mexico, France, Great Britain formed an alliance to give up using coal (Powering Past Coal Alliance).
“We need more ambition. We must go further and faster together… Climate change is the defining threat of our time. Our duty, to each other and to future generations, is to raise ambition. We need to do more on five ambition action areas: emissions, adaptation, finance, partnerships and leadership. We need at least a further 25 per cent cut in emissions by 2020,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said.
After holding the conferences, discussions and negotiations, the Bonn-Fiji Commitment was signed within COP23 through which 300 local and regional leaders commited to meet the Paris Agreement by supporting 20 initiatives.
Low-carbon cities
In December, world leaders met in Paris at the One Planet Summit for the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement. They discussed on the way in which financial flows are increased for a low-carbon future. The event organisers, French President, Emmanuel Macron, World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, and UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, signed a declaration launching a series of reference commitments. They prove that public and private financing develop at a fast pace in both developed and developing countries to consolidate sustainable development and meet national action plans on climate change (NDCs).
“From the United Nations system to governments and investors, billions of dollars have today been mobilized and trillions more pointed towards a transformation of > > the world’s energy to agricultural sectors, adding to the finance that has already been flowing before, during and since Paris 2015,” Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary UN Climate Change said.
Thus, the EU’s External Investment Plan allocates EUR 9 billion that will mobilize, by 2020, EUR 44 billion for sustainable investments in Africa and EU Neighbourhood countries. Climate Action and Energy Commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete, announced that investments are targeted for more segments among which sustainable cities, sustainable energy and connectivity. This investment plan supports the development of connectivity and a sustainable energy sector with positive impact including on the establishment of an environmental-friendly transport system. Investments will also mobilize the sustainable development of cities being allocated to infrastructure segments, urban planning, sustainable and intelligent mobility and energy efficiency. Next to member states, EU is the biggest global financer of climate change actions, with EUR 20.2 billion invested in developing countries last year. Also, EU is the most important global supplier of assistance in development, granting EUR 75.5 billion (last year) and representing 60% of global total.
UN Environment and BNP Paribas signed an agreement to set partnerships with a financing capital of USD 10 billion (EUR 8.5 billion) by 2025, in developing countries.
Worldwide, urban areas represent around two thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions coming from the use of energy and, according to different databases, their global contribution is estimated at 37-49%.
Within the Climate Action 100+, an innitiative led by investors who manage assets of USD 26.3 trillion, committed to accelerate measures on climate change. Also, as part of a new partnership, EBRD and Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM, an alliance of 7.500 cities and local administrations) are planning to develop actions in over 60 cities, including in those which have not focused on climate issues so far. EBRD will grant USD 500 million in the first instalment to bring a contribution from third parties of USD 1.5 billion, financing dedicated to the development and implementation of projects in the cities. “The EBRD will bring its deep and specific expertise in working with cities and financing their projects. The structure and specific targets of this financing accelerator provide a working operational model which can be replicated with other financial institutions across regions of the world and built-up to a global scale,” EBRD President Chakrabarti said.
Another initiative underlined within the One Planet Summit is Urbis, set up by EIB and the European Commission. Next to GCoM, its objective is to develop >
> an innovative consultancy and financing infrastructure focused on promoting investments in the cities to fight against climate change. “The EIB has provided finance for sustainable urban infrastructure both directly and through intermediated lending to well over 1,000 cities and towns worldwide. In the last six years alone, lending dedicated to climate action – mitigation and adaptation – under EIB’s urban financing amounts to about EUR 35 billion,” EIB Vice-President Jonathan Taylor said.
Currently, EIB is world leader in financing climate projects with an investment of EUR 100 billion over the next five years. EIB is also stimulating the mobilisation of private capital.
According to “Bonn-Fiji Commitment”, 1,019 local and regional governments in 86 countries with 804 million citizens declared they would introduce new ambitions on climate change and implement the objectives set by the Paris Agreement. The parties involved in the project reported their objectives of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the Climate Registry which, if reached, would determine a reduction of 5.6 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e) by 2020 and 26.8 gigatonnes by 2050 compared to the 1990 level. Carbon Climate Registry is the global platform for big and small cities and regions to approach climate change, created to support transparency, responsibility and credibility.
The general impact of commitments of the 7,494 cities and local governments (representing 680 million citizens) which get involved in Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy could lead to a reduction of 1.3 GtCO2e per year from business as usual in 2030, with a total of 15.64 GtCO2e until 2030.
The agreement says that the parties are “committed to cooperate with many more local and regional governments globally by accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement at all levels of government and strengthen the momentum of their global initiatives like the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy and the Under2 Coalition.”
For the sustainable development of cities, partnerships were concluded, and action and projects were presented within COP23. C40 Mayors Group (which connects over 90 big cities of the world) committed to develop and implement, much more ambitious actions to establish emission neutral cities by 2050. This will be achieved by implementing actions, stipulated in a report elaborated with McKinsey, called Focused Acceleration, launched at COP23. It underlines 12 opportunities on four action areas for reducing emissions. The report recommends the cities to develop a strategy focused on accelerating the opportunities of reducing specific carbon leading to progress in a shorter period of time for a city to reach a zero-carbon level by 2050. The study informs that, by implementing the 12 opportunities, cities can reach a necessary reduction of emissions of up to 90-100%. Among the sectors where the new actions could be implemented, there is also the transport system for which a new generation of mobility systems should be introduced.
“C40’s Deadline 2020 research showed that by 2030 C40 cities need to have delivered massive pollution reductions, reducing average emissions per person by two thirds. This report will provide invaluable insight for mayors as they decide on where to focus their effort and resources to meet these targets and deliver a prosperous, low carbon future for their citizens,” Mark Watts, Executive Director of C40 said.
Within COP23, EcoMobility Alliance, a group including several cities, committed to establish a sustainable transport system continuing efforts to reduce carbon emissions generated by transport.
SDGs and the transport sector
The transport sector is responsible for a quarter of energy-related emissions. Without policies and financial support, carbon emissions cannot be reduced in this sector. If the trend continues, by 2050, the level of emissions will double. To meet the transport decarbonisation objective worldwide, investments of USD 15.7 trillion are necessary by 2050. Investment flows are inefficient and require a shift to an environmentally-friendly transport infrastructure.
To meet climate change objectives, within the COP23 conference, the parties set financing, and investment measures and coordination of action, several big corporations committed to reduce emissions and some governments ratified agreements and amendments on climate change.
Bonn Conference participants announced actions and measures to be implemented on several sectors covered by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), having been adopted by states in 2015, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approaching all economic and social sectors which, correlated with climate change, require investments. To meet the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the transport system plays a major role and, although the SDGs don’t mention it as the only sector, it is integrated in the goals related to energy, health, infrastructure, cities and others.
In the “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure” Goal 9, infrastructure is essential to reduce emissions. During the Conference in Bonn, the transport system was granted a day of seminars where problems such as sustainable transport were discussed. The main topic was transport decarbonisation.
At Goal 11, “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, the transport sector is widely debated as the cities’ activity relies also on mobility. “Responsible consumption and production” (Goal 12) is also an objective where transport plays a central part. COP23 is the first UN Climate Change to have officially received a certification for eco-friendly performance. All objectives and measures were documented in the environment declaration and evaluated for several days by environment evaluated and then validated. Measures also include the public transport system.
COP23 has been the host of six new initiatives in the transport sector, among which below50, EcoMobility Alliance, Transforming Urban Mobility Initiative. At the request of Ban Ki-moon in 2014, (when he was UN Secretary General), the High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport was established, followed by Lima Paris Action Agenda, where non-state actors developed 15 transport initiatives during COP21 (when the Paris Agreement was signed). Next to the six COP23 transport initiatives and those pertaining to the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action (MPGCA), there are also 21 initiatives including freight and passenger transport and all transport modes.
To stimulate and accelerate climate change action, a new alliance was announced in Bonn, the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance (TDA). “To meet the Paris Agreement objectives, we need more ambition and coordinated action for the transport segment”, declared José Gomes Mendes, Vice Minister for Transport, Portugal, a country which, together with Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, and with Paris Process on Mobility and Climate (PPMC), launched the alliance during the COP23 Transport Day. The new alliance, formed of countries, regions and private companies, will implement ambitious actions for the transport-climate change report.
Railways answer the climate change challenge
To create a sustainable transport system worldwide, necessary infrastructure investments amount to around USD 2 trillion a year. Also, the establishment of a sustainable transport system can lead to savings of USD 70 trillion in 2050 in costs with fuel, operational costs, congestion and vehicles. If improved cross-border administration, transport and communication infrastructure are also considered, global GDP could increase by 4.7% or USD 2.6 billion.
According to the latest statistics published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and UIC in Railway Handbook on Energy Consumption and CO2 Emission, the 2017 edition, two years ago transport issued 24.7% of global energy-related CO2 emissions (or 8 billion tonnes of CO2) and was responsible for 28.8% of global energy consumption. Per sectors, road transport had the largest share of fuel-generated CO2 emissions, 72.6%, followed by air transport (10.2%) and road transport (4.2%).
In 2005-2015, rail transport registered a reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The energy consumption of rail transport was reduced by 27.8% in the passenger segment (passenger-km) and by 18% in the freight segment (tonne-km). In the same period, passenger transport CO2 emissions dropped by 21.7%, while freight transport emissions by 19%.
Also, the share of diesel products reduced from 62.2% in 2005 to 56% in 2015, while the share of electricity increased. At the same time, the share of energy from renewable sources increased by 65%. These figures clearly show the importance of developing rail transport to meet climate change objectives.
UIC had a major contribution to COP23 and had even signed a partnership agreement with UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and UITP.
As of 2014, to meet UN’s requirements presented during the Climate Summit, UIC proposed the transport sector challenge within the green agenda of growth and climate change perspectives for 2030 and 2050. The challenges > > set new ambitions which can be met by optimising the rail sector and through energy efficiency. These challenges include reducing end energy consumption from rail transport services by 50% until 2030 and by 60% until 2050, reducing CO2 emissions from rail transport services by 50% until 2030 and by 75% until 2050. These objectives should be met by rail companies worldwide by electrifying railways, decarbonising energy supply, optimising charging factors, procurement of efficient rolling stock and implementation of energy management systems. Also, for the passenger transport segment (passenger-km), a 50% increase is proposed by 2030 and the duplication of share by 2050 (100%), while for the freigt segment, the share should be equal to that of road transport by 2030 and to increase by 50% compared to road transport until 2050.
To mark the importance of rail transport, Deutsche Bahn organised during COP23 a special train journey with the ICE “Train to Bonn”, which left from Berlin. “Today (November 4), we are sending an important message by having our 250 guests travel CO2-free. We have continued to raise our own climate protection targets and step up our efforts since Copenhagen in 2009, in Paris two years ago and now in Bonn in 2017,” DB CEO Richard Lutz said.
Germany is part of the countries with a strong contribution in the fight against climate change by implementing various projects and policies in many sectors. “Our objective in Bonn is to move global climate protection forward and work on implementing the Paris Climate Accord,” said German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said.
It is important to mention that DB received a climate score of A for environment performance in the 2017 top published by CDP international rating organisation. For the current year, the A list of CDP includes 120 companies and DB is one of the two rail companies in the world on CDP’s A list, next to the Canadian National Railway Company. By 2030, DB plans to reduce GHG emissions with over 50% representing over two million metric tonnes of CO2. By 2050, DB Group plans to become CO2-free.
As we’ve mentioned the special high-speed service organised by DB within COP23, it is also important to mention that shifting traffic to rail high-speed transport is a significant opportunity for reducing transport CO2 with a remarkable efficiency compared to the other transport modes, said the International Energy Agency. In 2015, global rail high-speed transport registered a traffic of 625 billion passenger-km with China, Europe and Japan accounting for 95% of total high-speed traffic. IEA says rail high-speed transport is the rail segment with the highest growth with an accelerated growth of 70% in from 2013 to 2015, following the development of services in China, a remarkable acceleration in the past two decades.
CO2 emissions will be reduced if traffic is shifted to high-speed railways as the energy used per passenger-km in high-speed services is by 90% lower than that in air transport. Also, high-speed rail has a very high potential of very low CO2 emissions or even zero emissions if associated with decarbonised electricity generation systems.
Share on:
