The COP27 Presidency will be launching a transformative initiative to decarbonise cities in the Global South with a focus on e-vehicle investment at the international climate summit in Egypt on 17 November 2022.
Titled the ‘Low Carbon Transport for Urban Sustainability’ (LᶜO₂TUS) initiative, one of the focal points is to accelerate investment for electric vehicles and sustainable mobility infrastructure.
Distinct interventions include creating bespoke financing facilities for electric 2-3 wheelers and scaling up investments in multimodal, public transport infrastructure (including cycling infrastructure).
Another aim is to “empower and invest” in other informal transportation, which would involve conducting full asset-based assessments of informal transport systems at a city and national level.
A statement from the COP27 Presidency said a focus on transport emissions is more critical than ever before. “Transport accounts for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and is the fastest growing source of emissions.”
Stakeholders are being invited to participate in the initiative by filling in a registration form. The final version will be launched by the COP27 Presidency at the end of the summit on November 17.
Potential interested partners that could back this action plan include the UK government, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Economic Forum.
Hal Stevenson, Senior Public Affairs Manager at Lime for UK and Ireland, told Zag Daily: “It’s encouraging to see conversations around improvements to urban infrastructure taking place at a global level that could help make sustainable, low-carbon transport a reality in even more cities across the world.
“Investment in alternative, green mobility solutions is already having a huge impact globally. Lime alone has already helped riders save 25,000 metric tonnes of carbon and replaced 60 million car journeys.”
Richard Dilks, Chief Executive at CoMoUK, told Zag he welcomes COP27 picking up the baton on sustainable mobility. “COP26’s transport declaration, which the UK Government signed up to, recognised that ‘a sustainable future for road transport will require wider system transformation, including support for active travel, public and shared transport’.
“This multi-pronged approach is essential to success in curbing global emissions from transport. We see this in our research with UK shared transport users whereby their use of shared transport also leads to them using public transport and active travel more. Moving vehicle fleets to be zero tailpipe is key and the data is clear that an overall reduction in the number of vehicles and in traffic is also needed.”
