International Union of Railways
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
World Resource Institute/EMBARQ
Bridging the Gap Partnership
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Transportation is a key building block of sustainable development. The majority of transport financing supports unsustainable transportation, increasing inequality of access, CO2 and air pollution, traffic fatalities, and sprawl development. A growing share of transport financing from climate funds and development aid programs supports sustainable transport. Emerging best practices in national transportation policy also have potential to leverage changes in transport sustainability by influencing larger public and private sector transport investments.

Sustainable transport seeks to avoid low value or unnecessary travel through smarter planning and communications, shift travel to lower impact passenger and freight modes, and improve the efficiency of vehicles, fuels, and network operations. This session discusses efforts to measure the contribution of transport investments to support sustainability goals, focusing on key metrics and indicators as well as providing an overview of recent patterns and trends in transport funding flows from different sources worldwide.

Sustainable transport is vital to sustainable development. Taken as a whole, however, existing patterns of transport sector investment and system management undermine equitable access to opportunities, environmental protection goals, and global green growth. In the negotiation of the Rio+20 outcome document, many countries and regions, including the EU, US, and G-77, have pressed for greater recognition of sustainable transport as a core element of sustainable development. This session aims to provide Rio+20 participants with a deeper understanding of how transportation funding flows support or undermine sustainable development, how national transport policies can be sharpened to ensure progress on sustainable transport at the metropolitan and municipal or state level, and the role that transport system monitoring and data collection can play in linking transport funding to sustainable development goals. A series of short presentations will be followed by a moderated panel discussion:

The Global Policy Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, also representing the Bridging the Gap Partnership, will provide a quick overview of the contributions of different financing sources to transport system investment globally and how aid directed through multi-lateral and bi-lateral aid programs and climate funds can influence the sustainability of transport system development.

The Executive Director of EMBARQ will highlight how national urban transport policies can be shaped to improve the sustainability of transport investment outcomes, focusing especially on opportunities for progress in such nations as India and Mexico, which have recently initiated national urban transport investment programs.

The Senior Transport Advisor to the GIZ will highlight available options for financing urban transport in a sustainable manner, highlighting different financing instruments, in which situations they are best to be used, and how to optimally combine them.

A developing country transportation official will highlight how their country is striving to advance sustainable transport as a key element of sustainable development.

A representative from a multilateral development bank will highlight how multilateral development banks are seeking to boost their support for sustainable transport investment and institutional capacity building.