The Paris climate agreement signed by 175 nations last month will not meet its goals unless climate-smart, energy-efficient transportation systems become the new normal in many of the world’s urban centers. To help make that happen, the world’s largest multilateral donor is proposing a new “global coalition” of world leaders to move the sustainable transportation agenda forward.
“We have reached a tipping point,” Nancy Vandyke, lead economist for the World Bank’s Transport and Information and Communication Technologies Global Practice told Devex. “Now it’s no longer a question of talking. Now it’s a question of moving into action and that needs leadership — senior leadership.”
This November, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport will expire and is expected to issue a final set of recommendations for policymakers. Recommendations, however, will not be enough to maintain momentum and continuity in the sustainable transportation agenda, according to Vandyke.