Posts tagged with 'South America'
Post-Pandemic, Public Transport Needs to Get Back on Track to Meet Global Climate Goals
Post-Pandemic, Public Transport Needs to Get Back on Track to Meet Global Climate Goals
Public transport is one of the best, most cost-effective solutions available to address today’s climate and development challenges. Buses and trains can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to two-thirds per passenger, per kilometer compared to private vehicles. The UN’s latest ...
Tracking Climate Action: How the World Can Still Limit Warming to 1.5 Degrees C
Tracking Climate Action: How the World Can Still Limit Warming to 1.5 Degrees C
Today’s climate change headlines often seem at odds with each other. One day, it’s catastrophic wildfires wreaking havoc around the world; the next, it’s an optimistic piece on the rapid scale-up of solar and wind power. Taken together, such stories ...
From Minibuses to 'Boda Bodas,' Informal Transport Systems Could Be an Untapped Climate Change Solution
From Minibuses to ‘Boda Bodas,’ Informal Transport Systems Could Be an Untapped Climate Change Solution
Over 50% of all transport-related emissions come from high-income countries, where people are more likely to own and depend on personal vehicles. Meanwhile, less than 1% is generated by low-income countries in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. In these ...
5 Countries Taking Action to Reach Net-Zero Targets
5 Countries Taking Action to Reach Net-Zero Targets
To date, over 90 countries have set net-zero emissions targets, committing to help prevent the most harmful impacts from climate change. But questions remain around the credibility of many of these pledges and whether these goals will be met. Together, countries with net-zero targets — which ...
Restoring Degraded Forests Could Bring Back Lost Rainfall, Cooler Temperatures
Restoring Degraded Forests Could Bring Back Lost Rainfall, Cooler Temperatures
Many people point to forest restoration as a way to curb climate change, where replanted forests sequester carbon in trees and soils. But emerging evidence shows that restoration can provide non-carbon climate benefits, too — in particular, reducing heat and regulating rainfall. Here’s what ...
4 Andean Cities Adapting to Glacier Retreat to Preserve Water Security
4 Andean Cities Adapting to Glacier Retreat to Preserve Water Security
Glaciers do more than feed our rivers and lakes, they also serve as critical savings banks for water withdrawals when other sources dry up. In South America, the glaciers and snowpack that crown the Andes provide slow, consistent meltwater that ...
Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo - Co-winners of the 2015 Sustainable Transport Award
Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro announced co-winners of the 2015 Sustainable Transport Award
The winners of the 2015 Sustainable Transport Award have been announced! Organized by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), the Sustainable Transportation Award (STA) recognizes outstanding vision and innovation in sustainable transport over the past year. Announced today ...
Cities like Florianópolis, Brazil (pictured) are helping make investments more responsive to residents' needs through public engagement in urban mobility planning. Picture by Chan360/Flickr.
Why the public voice matters in urban mobility planning: Lessons from Brazil
Eighty-five percent of Brazilians live, work, and play in cities. As such, urban mobility is a fundamental driver of quality of life for the vast majority of the country, enabling access to jobs, healthcare, schools, and other everyday needs. In ...
From developing bus rapid transit to improving public spaces, Belo Horizonte, Brazil is working to become a sustainable city. Photo by Eduardo Beltrame.
Seven ways Belo Horizonte, Brazil inspires sustainable cities
Belo Horizonte, Brazil is a city of remarkable cuisine, green spaces, and architecture. The city is increasingly designed using people-oriented urban development strategies that prioritize the people who make the city come alive. Even for outsiders, this state capital feels like ...
Peru recently received an $11 million grant from the NAMA facility that will help the country attract significant funding for its multi-billion dollar sustainable urban transport improvement plans. Photo by Anton Muhajir/Flickr.
Peru’s climate leaders awarded over $11 million for low-carbon urban transport
Peru was recently awarded €9 million ($11.14 million) for its urban transport Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) by the German and British NAMA facility. This climate finance award will allow the Peruvian government to leverage $50 million from development aid agencies – especially KfW, ...
Rio de Janeiro is using the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories (GPC) – the first internationally accepted standard for measuring city-level emissions – to inform actions on climate change. Photo by Gerben van Heijningen/Flickr.
Hundreds of cities poised to replicate Rio’s approach to measuring and reducing emissions
Rio de Janeiro is one of the world’s leading cities injecting sustainability into its planning. In 2011, Mayor Eduardo Paes enacted an ambitious climate change law, setting a goal to avoid 20% of its emissions by 2020, based on 2005 levels. There ...
As the impacts of climate change intensify, cities can learn from best practices to become more resilient to climate impacts. Photo by Fede Cabrera/Flickr.
Three climate adaptation lessons from Brazil’s cities
Brazil’s cities, home to 85% of the country’s population, are already feeling the effects of climate change. Intense rains and floods in Rio de Janeiro are causing fatal landslides with high social and infrastructure costs. Temperatures are climbing to record-breaking highs in Porto ...
As national leaders prepare plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions at COP20, they can look to sustainable transport for win-win solutions that curb emissions while generating jobs, boosting economic growth, and improving public health. Photo by Associacao Ciclocidade/Flickr.
Low-carbon urban transport boosts social and economic development
This week in Lima, Peru, national-level decision makers, mayors, business leaders, international finance institutions, and civil society actors come together for the COP20 climate negotiations, and the world is expecting progress towards an international climate agreement expected to be reached ...
Preliminary figures released by the National Health System (SUS) indicate that in 2013, the number of fatalities in Brazilian traffic fell 10% compared to 2012. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brazil.
New data indicates Brazil’s streets are getting safer
From 2009 to 2012, the number of traffic deaths on Brazilian streets has increased gradually each year – peaking in 2012, when 44,800 people lost their lives in traffic crashes. However, preliminary data from the National Health System (SUS) indicates ...
In Brasília, a new safety law lets women get off buses in places other than traditional bus stops after 10 pm. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brazil.
Brasília, Brazil now lets women choose where to get off the bus at night
When deciding between modes of transport, travelers consider several variables, typically including convenience, cost, time, reliability, and comfort. Another consideration – which is particularly important for women – is perceived safety. No one prefers public transport if it requires walking ...
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