Active Mobility: Bringing People Together

Around the world, the negative impacts of our reliance on cars play out on a day-to-day basis. Significant proportions of the urban population in Europe are exposed to air pollutant concentrations above the recommended limits and more than 100 million people are affected by harmful noise levels above 55 decibels. In developing countries, many cities are jammed with cars, which pollute the air, add to global warming, cause accidents and impact the economy. For example, in Bogota and Delhi drivers lose out nearly 190 hours per year due to congestion. Most of Africa’s cities have very limited public transport systems leading much reliance on chiefly diesel-powered mini-buses and personal motorcycles, some of which use 2-stroke engines causing more pollution. In the United States, traffic congestion caused Americans living in urban area to travel an extra 6.9 billion hours and consequently consume extra 3.1 billions of gallons of fuel. Mobility is in need of a total rethinking.

Walking and cycling – active mobility – are equitable, affordable and efficient mobility options that have little adverse impact on the environment. Active mobility supports transport planning ambitions. Walking and cycling are space efficient, flexible, have low individual and societal costs, and, in combination with public transport, can cover almost all mobility needs.

These active mobility modes have also been recognized for providing a wide spectrum of positive health benefits. During the COVID-19 pandemic, cycling was the most preferred mode for individual mobility in cities. Local governments responded with additional pop-up bike lanes in many cities around the world to promote cycling.

This session will focus on the importance of active mobility and how local governments can seize the opportunity offered by the pandemic with an improved urban design and city planning. Learnings from Africa-based NGOs promoting a car-free environment, and pop-up bike lanes around the world during COVID-19 pandemic will create a different perspective for attendees.

Speakers

• Aimee Gauthier, Chief Knowledge Officer, ITDP
• Hervé Levifve, City representative, Paris (tbc)
• Kirsten Wilkins, Managing Director, Open Streets Cape Town
• Mangesh Dighe, Environment Officer, Pune Municipal Corporation
• Robert Anthony C. Siy lll, Head of City Transportation and Development Management Office (CTDMO), Pasig City (tbc)

Attendees will get insights on:
– Importance of active mobility, how citizen led groups are bringing change.
– How newer business models of shared mobility are leading the discussion of active mobility, public transport integration in cities?
– How active mobility acts as the catalyst for social equity and local business activities
– The transformation of urban spaces to support active mobility. In what ways the temporary solutions during COVID-19 supporting walking, cycling can be made permanent solutions?

EcoLogistics: Achieving Low Emission Urban Freight Transport

Have you ever wondered about the journey of the morning coffee you brew or buy from a store? How did it reach from the coffee estates to your cup?

Global freight demand is estimated to triple between 2015 and 2050 and the ability to move goods efficiently has become the lifeblood of economic development, particularly in cities which generate over 80 percent of global GDP and an estimated 75 percent of global emissions (ITF 2019). Freight transport forms the backbone of today’s global economy.

The unprecedented growth in e-commerce has led many businesses grow but has also put enormous stress on existing infrastructures. Its demand and dependency was recently seen during the COVID19 outbreak, where contactless shopping became the new normal.

With the numbers of deliveries exploding, companies are finding ways to make their supply chain more efficient to manage the demand. New business models (just-in-time delivery), alternate delivery methods (cargo bikes, parcel locker), policies (low emission zones, off-hour deliveries), technological and infrastructure developments are evolving to minimize the negative impacts on urban life.

Join us to discuss trending solutions in the field of urban logistics, and the need to explore the sector which otherwise is neglected compared to passenger transport. The EcoLogistics Project has conducted studies in nine cities in Argentina, Colombia and India. Local government representatives will discuss the baseline status from these nine cities.

Attendees will get insights on:

• How public-private partnership can forge the way of new solutions?
• How urban planning can guide better urban freight distribution?
• Is the cargo bike the final answer for parcel deliveries?
• How has urban logistics in the time of the pandemic played the key role?

Moderator

• Yiqian Zhang, Officer, Sustainable Mobility, ICLEI World Secretariat, Germany

Speakers

• Sergio Eduardo Martinez, Undersecretary of Mobility Policy of Bogota
• Robin Billsjö, Urban Freight Strategist, Transport department, City of Stockholm
• Li-Teh Lu (Ph.D.), Director General, Environment Protection Department, Deputy CEO, ICLEI EcoLogistics Community Chair Office, Taoyuan

EcoLogistics Principles: A Pathway to Sustainable Urban Freight

Global freight demand is estimated to triple between 2015 and 2050. The ability to move goods efficiently has become the lifeblood of economic development, particularly in cities which generate over 80 percent of global GDP and an estimated 75 percent of global emissions. As cities continue to grow at an unprecedented rate, increasing freight movements present unique urban challenges including congestion, air pollution, traffic accidents and a host of other negative impacts on the mobility system.

To mitigate the adverse impacts and meet the Paris climate goals, it is imperative for cities to apply sustainable principles for moving goods. “EcoLogistics” promotes clean, sustainable, efficient and safe urban freight through collaborative efforts in stakeholder engagement; technologies, policies and land use planning and inspire local governments to transform their urban freight system.

This panel will be the platform launching eight foundational principles for local governments to follow leading the transition to sustainable urban freight developed by ICLEI and partners. The chair of EcoLogistics Community (the first city network globally committed to a sustainable urban freight future) Taoyuan will be adopting the principles to make the urban freight in city sustainable.

Attendees will get insights on:

• The readiness of a city to implement sustainable urban freight solutions
• The starting point while planning for urban freight
• How cities can work with stakeholders towards sustainable urban freight
• Stakeholder engagement for policy interventions on sustainable urban freight

Decarbonizing Transport: No Silver Bullet

The transport sector currently consumes more than half of the global oil demand, contributes roughly one quarter of energy-related CO2 emissions and is the fastest growing emissions sector. Without immediate actions, transport emissions could more than double by 2050; if we are to limit global warming well below the 1.5 degree Celsius, we must decarbonize transport.

But there is no single solution to delivering carbon-neutral mobility – we need a combination of measures.

A growing number of cities are taking steps to decarbonize transport – especially passenger transport but also freight, driven by the need to reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions. These measures include reducing transport demand, shifting to low-carbon and more efficient modes of transport, as well as enhancing vehicle and fuel efficiency. In addition to technological development, other alternatives such as behavioral change also play a role in achieving long-term climate targets.

This panel will focus on various policies, infrastructure and technological developments to support decarbonizing of the transport sector. We will also discuss development and challenges in e-mobility and its uptake in public transportation system.

Speakers and attendees will engage on the following questions:

• The transformation of urban passenger transport is one priority action in the short term to decarbonize transport. In what ways can the transport sector, public transport in particular, scale up ambition and speed up climate action?
• In the transition towards carbon neutral transport, how could the public and private sectors work together to accelerate this process
• What are the enabling frameworks? Are there any innovative financing mechanisms for low carbon transport in cities?
• How can we foster knowledge transfer and share best practices that will accelerate the transition to carbon-neutral mobility?
• What CO2 mitigation measures has been planned reaching climate goals and underlying challenges to achieve them?

A new virtual experience for urban leaders tackling the climate emergency in the time of Covid-19

This October, ICLEI and the Federal City of Bonn are excited to welcome you to Daring Cities 2020, a virtual, global forum on climate change for urban leaders tackling the climate emergency, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Daring Cities 2020 will run from 7-28 October 2020, offering an online array of high level and visionary speaking sessions, a series of informative workshops and personal networking opportunities. Over a three-week period, attendees will have access to a variety of virtual formats to accommodate different topics, time zones, internet bandwidth limits, and languages. The event will help to set the course to COP26, Daring Cities 2021 and beyond.

Roadmap for Sustainable Mobility in Côte D’Ivoire by 2050

This session will present the Roadmap for Sustainable Mobility in Côte d’Ivoire by 2050, elaborated by the Climate Chance Association in with the Paris Process on Mobility and Transport (PPMC – which is part of the MP-GCA), the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) and the Observatory of African Mobilities (OMA), and, the modelling of greenhouse gas reduction data compared to a business as usual scenario if this roadmap is to be adopted. The panel will discuss how this roadmap has contributed to the Ivorian strategy on mobility and transport, and how it could possibly contribute to the NDC of Côte d’Ivoire in the run-up to COP26.

This dialogue, through the Sustainable Mobility roadmap for Côte d’Ivoire, will highlight strategies in transport and mobility that can simultaneously develop and decarbonise this sector, with the involvement of a wide-range of local actors including start-ups, local authorities, non-profit organisations, national authorities, public transport authorities, researchers, and others. It will present the successes and strengths of the Ivoirian model, which could then potentially be replicated in other contexts. On a larger scale, this session will show the progress made and potential for future action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport, and incorporating strategies for the same into NDCs in the run-up to COP26.

Decarbonizing Transport: The Case of Electric Buses

This workshop will discuss the development and challenges in electric buses and its uptake in public transportation systems. Several cities have announced ambitious goals for electrification of their bus fleet and adopted innovative business models to overcome challenges such as high upfront costs of electric buses. Experiences from these first movers shall be disseminated in order to identify key aspects when planning and procuring electric bus services.

The workshop will also introduce the TUMI E-Bus Mission project (joint project by C40, GIZ, ICLEI, ITDP, UITP, SLOCAT, WRI).

Speakers and attendees will engage on the following questions:

• How to shift new bus procurements in leading cities worldwide to zero-emission technologies? • What business models help to scale up the market for electric bus technologies?
• How to engage and create political commitment at the city level to promote electrification of public transport?
• What can other cities learn from cities that realized already large-scale tender processes for electric buses?
• What are the needs of the cities when planning, implementing and operating electric bus fleets?
• What instruments could help cities to tackle the challenges of electric bus implementation?
• How can we foster knowledge transfer and share best practices that will accelerate the transition to carbon-neutral mobility?
• In the transition towards electric buses, how could the public and private sectors work together to accelerate this process?
• What can cities do to attract public and private financing for electric bus fleets?

Speakers:

• Anthony Courreges, Clean Transport Finance Manager, C40 Cities: “Innovative business models for electric bus upscaling”
• Sofia Zamara, Transmilenio, Bogota, Colombia (tbc): “Experiences of the city of Bogotá on acquiring electric buses by tender”
• Laghu Parashar, GIZ India: “Training needs of cities for upscaling of electric bus operations”
• Facilitator: Jens Giersdorf, GIZ, TUMI Volt

The Role of Transport in Urban Resilience: Responding to COVID-19, Climate Emergency and Other Crises

As governments focus their attention on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in their countries, it will be of utmost importance that other priorities such as climate change or road safety are not scaled back. The fear is that the threat of COVID-19 will have a lasting impact on public transport and prompt more people to choose individual car-based transport.

But the world cannot accept further delays and cancellation of planned legislation and infrastructure implementations that impact on sustainable urban mobility. Post-COVID-19, cities will have to promote more sustainable pathways, in which economic development is decoupled from private motorization – in order to enhance the cities’ resilience of future crises.

Previous crises have shaped how cities are planned and how people move in them. We have a window of opportunity to learn from the current pandemic and to build back better by making our mobility systems more resilient and responsive to crises.

This session will discuss how cities can future-proof their mobility systems and become stronger and ready to address climate change, air pollution, road fatalities and future pandemics.

In this session, national and local policy-makers can identify measures to recover from COVID-19 and rebuild resilient urban mobility systems, improving accessibility for all and reducing risks of disease transmission in public transport systems.

Attendees will participate in a convening space to share experiences, challenges and opportunities and the discuss feasibility of recommendations from different stakeholders.