Connections

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https://hdl.handle.net/10986/22293

Connections is a weekly series of knowledge notes from the World Bank Group’s Transport & Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Global Practice. It covers projects, experiences, and front-line developments.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 15

How China's Transport Sector Can Contribute to Carbon Reduction
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06) Zhou, Weimin
The Chinese government, based on its commitment to carbon reduction in the Paris Climate Agreement,laid out its intention to achieve peak CO₂ emissions by 2030, and to make its best effort to peak as early as possible. It committed to lowering CO₂ emissions per unit of GDP by 60–65 percent of their 2005 levels, and to increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to about 20 percent. Although these targets were set up for the country as a whole, it is essential for decision makers and practitioners to understand the contribution the transport sector can make if its development path is aimed at sustainability.
Efficiency: Why Efficiency Matters for Sustainable Mobility
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-12) Wyrowski, Lukasz; El-Hifnawi, Baher
Efficiency is one of the four global goals framing sustainable mobility in the Global Mobility Report (GMR). The GMR posits that efficiency is crucial to ensure that transport demand is met effectively at the least possible cost. Because efficiency cuts across multiple aspects of mobility, the GMR arbitrarily defines the scope of the efficiency goal from a macro-economic perspective. Putting in place a transport system that is efficient would mean achieving, among other things: (i) seamless integration across transport modes; (ii) optimal traffic volumes that reduce congestion and delays at borders; and (iii) minimal use of energy for moving people and goods. This would be done at the macroeconomic level—including sub-country, country, region, and world—with all actors optimizing resources such as space and energy, adopting adequate technologies, and making use of regulations and institutional capacity. Given that demand for the transport of goods worldwide is projected to triple between 2015 and 2050, the GMR claims that transport infrastructure and services will have an ever-greater role to play in meeting additional demand. Therefore, addressing inefficiencies must be a priority across the entire system of interconnected roads, railroads, ports, and airports, in any given area.
Green Mobility: Why Green Transport Interventions Matter for Sustainable Mobility
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-12) Dalkmann, Holger; Fischer, Alyssa; Peet, Karl
As one of the four global goals framing sustainable mobility in the Global Mobility Report (GMR), green mobility aims to reduce both air and noise pollution from transport, and to address climate change in the transport sector through mitigation and adaptation. Transport currently contributes to 23 percent of global energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 18 percent of all man-made emissions in the global economy. In one projection, energy related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are expected to grow by 40 percent between 2013 and 2040.1 Air pollution—both ambient (outdoor) and household (indoor)—is the biggest single environmental risk to health; ambient air pollution alone kills about three million people each year. In addition, evidence from several countries suggests that traffic noise has the second biggest environmental impact on health.
Framing Sustainable Mobility: How to Ensure that Today's Mobility Needs Are Not Met at the Expense of Future Generations
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-11) Vandycke, Nancy; Kauppila, Jari
In its crucial role, transport fosters development as it connects people to goods, services, social, and economic opportunities. But today’s data shows social exclusion linked to accessibility gaps in transport services—in rural areas, women, and the elderly—, high costs tosociety from poorly integrated transport systems, road fatalities, traffic congestion, air pollution, and environmental degradation. The question for global and country transportdecision-makers is how to meet the mobility needs of people and goods now, while preserving futuregenerations? The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identify an important and rich array of characteristics that define a sustainable world. Those characteristics, along with those identified in the economic literature, can be used to frame“sustainable mobility” around four global goals, which should address more than access. Formobility to be sustainable, it should have four attributes—equitable, efficient, safe, and green. In this way, mobility can benefit both present and future generations.
Transport Policies for Climate Change: The Transformative Role Transport Can Play in Mitigation and Adaptation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-05) Bangalore, Mook; Hallegatte, Stephane
The choices developing countries make today in building and expanding transport networks will irreversibly shape development for the next century. That is why urgent steps are needed to ensure that transport development avoids locking in carbon intensive or high-risk patterns. While investments in urban planning and public transportation pay off over the long term, they also entail high up-front costs, making it essential to scale up support from the World Bank Group and other international institutions. The commitment to achieving zero net emissions by 2100 made at the Paris climate negotiations cannot be achieved without radical changes in how cities grow, and transport planning must be part of green growth strategies. Furthermore, climate-related issues such as food security, extreme weather events, and the health impacts of urban pollution have ties to the quality, affordability, and availability of affordable transport in both rural and urban areas. With many cities in developing countries only now planning transport infrastructure, this is the ideal time to ensure that transport planning incorporates climate-smart and low-carbon priorities.
Will the Digital Revolution Help or Hurt Employment?: Adaptation a Key to Realizing Job Gains
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-02) Raja, Siddhartha; Ampah, Mavis
What will technological change deliver in the coming decades? And what can we do to determine the outcome? Technological change in any given society is never smooth and always negotiated. Although both perils and opportunities await, the ultimate result depends on our choices today. Governments, businesses, and individuals have shown that adapting to changing circumstances can alter the consequences of apparently ‘inevitable’ changes. And developing countries can be profoundly affected by changes seemingly limited to the advanced economies; they must adapt to what is actually a global technological playing field. The World Bank’s recently issued World Development Report 2016: digital dividends focuses on strengthening the ‘analog complements’ of the digital economy, including adapting skills to get the most out of the digital revolution. Countries whose governments can facilitate innovation, strengthen education and skill building, and build up the social safety net may be the most likely to benefit from the coming changes.
ICT at COP21: Enormous Potential to Mitigate Emissions
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-12) Gallegos, Doyle; Narimatsu, Junko
The transformational potential of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) was on display in Paris at the Twenty-First Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. ICTs, including the Internet, mobile phones, geographic information systems (GIS), satellite imaging, remote sensing, and data analytics, could reduce yearly global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) 20 percent by 2030, thus holding them at their 2015 level. Moreover, ICT emissions are expected to decrease to 1.97 percent of the global total by 2030, from 2.3 percent in 2020, while emission reductions attributable to ICT will be nearly 10 times greater than those of the ICT sector. ICTs are also critical for climate change adaptation, providing vital tools for all phases of the disaster risk management cycle. Although the opportunities for ICTs to support the climate change agenda are enormous, much work remains in order to realize them. Governments of developing countries must be further encouraged to include ICTs in their national climate change policies. And the international development community will have to make significant efforts, particularly in low-income countries, to develop ICT infrastructure as well as the institutional capacities and skills to implement and sustain these solutions.
Enhancing Road Resilience in Pacific Island Countries: World Bank Assisting Adaptation to Climate Change
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-12) Michaels, Sean David
Pacific island countries are experiencing higher temperatures, rising sea levels, and extreme weather that is increasingly frequent and intense. The resulting damage has likewise been extreme. Between 2012 and 2015, for example, losses from three cyclones ranged from 11 percent to 64 percent of GDP in Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu. In many of these countries, primary roads and critical infrastructure are adjacent to the coast, and the majority of the population lives within 1 kilometer of the sea. Expected climate change effects will place coastal assets and communities at a higher level of risk. Governments are well aware of these challenges. Today, more than one-fourth of the World Bank’s transport commitments support mitigation and adaptation to climate change (a share that is growing), and its work with Pacific island countries is one of the ways it is responding to the rising demand for climate action. The demand from Pacific island countries in recent years has focused on road resilience, and early lessons will provide a strong basis for further progress.
Transport at COP21: Part of the Climate Change Solution
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-12) Ebinger, Jane; Peltier, Nicolas; Gitay, Habiba; Monsalve, Carolina; Losos, Andrew; Rogers, John Allen; Vandycke, Nancy
The case for climate action has never been stronger. Around the world, climate change is putting at risk the lives of millions of people as well as threatening many coastal cities and endangering trillion of dollars of investments in transport infrastructure and services. The Twenty-First Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will bring heads of state and ministers to Paris at the end of November to reach a global climate agreement with far-reaching implications for low-carbon and climate-resilient growth. Transport is playing a greater role in COP21 than in past UNFCCC conferences as a critical part of the solution: a sector that can contribute to both reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and building economy wide resilience to the impacts of climate change. In view of the sector’s potential, the heavily debated transport question is how to sustainably meet the rising global demand for greater interconnectedness and mobility. The World Bank and the seven other leading multilateral development banks have joined forces with the Paris Process for Mobility and Climate (PPMC) and the rest of the transport community to call for more action on transport and climate change.
Action and Advocacy for Sustainable Transport: Recent and Ongoing World Bank Efforts
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10) Irigoyen, Jose Luis; Guislain, Pierre
During its 2014–15 fiscal year, the World Bank’s transport strategy focused on sustainability as part of a broader effort to eradicate poverty, raise shared prosperity, and tackle climate change. As articulated by the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport, sustainability encompasses heightened access in rural and landlocked areas, low-carbon solutions in cities, and world trade and growth stimulated by investments in infrastructure, inter-modality, and digital and low-carbon technologies. The World Bank’s new commitments in fiscal year 2015 reflected this convergence, and its operational focus has been backed by strong advocacy on transport issues in recent global conferences and high-level summits.