The following is a message from Cornie Huizenga, joint convener of the Partnership for Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), which includes EMBARQ (the producer of this blog.) Both SLoCaT and the Bridging the Gap initiative prepared draft recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, as a lead-up to this week’s 16th edition of Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Cancun, Mexico.

As emissions from transport increase worldwide and especially in developing countries, it will become increasingly difficult post-2012 and especially beyond 2020 to realize emission reduction ambitions without involving land transport. The developing world needs to actively take a low-carbon path for their development and transport choices.

Bridging the Gap and the SLoCaT Partnership, two multi-stakeholder partnerships representing 55 organizations working on transport and climate change in the developing countries, call on the negotiating parties to increase their attention on sectoral issues and to:

1. Better integrate land transport to prevent developing countries from becoming giant emitters;
2. Combine Avoid-Shift-Improve measures as the basis for effective climate mitigation action in land transport in developing countries;
3. Raise the profile of sectors, including the transport sector, in the discussions on future agreement on climate change;
4. Ensure that Nationally Appropriated Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) are suitable for the transport sector;
5. Strengthen the coverage of transport in national communications;
6. Acknowledge co-benefits;
7. Integrate transport in capacity building and technology transfer;
8. Give transport a place in climate financing.

Download this PDF for the full recommendations.

And to stay updated on transport at COP 16, check out the COP 16 blog, brought to you by Bridging the Gap: https://www.transport2012.org/

For further information contact Cornie Huizenga cornie.huizenga[at]slocatpartnership.org or Daniel Bongardt daniel.bongardt[at]gtz.de.