On 27 October 2019, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and Taoyuan City launched a unique global community that recognises the fundamental importance of sustainable urban freight for sustainable urban developments.
Called ICLEI EcoLogistics Community, it is the first city network in the world committed to a sustainable urban freight future. The Community builds on established initiatives, ongoing international programmes, and significant experience and expertise through ICLEI’s global network.
“Taoyuan City is the national leading logistics hub and its comprehensive logistics industry brings enormous prosperity to the City’s industrial and economic growth. However, this prosperity also comes with various environmental downsides such as air pollution, noise pollution, congestion, waste pollution, road degradation, GHG emissions and so on,” says the Mayor of Taoyuan City Wen-Tsan Cheng.
ICLEI EcoLogistics Community aims to use the integration of technology, policies and planning as a vehicle for environmental, social and economic sustainability in the urban freight sector. The Community encourages collaborative goal setting and action plans through stakeholder engagement and innovations.
Through a service oriented structure, collective learning exercises, peer-to-peer exchanges and joint activities, the Community advocates the awareness of sustainable urban freight and help committed cities accelerate the implementation. The Community also aims to support lessons learned on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) from local governments.
“Today, our cities are in competition, not with global cities or emerging areas, but with drastic climate change and ever-increasing urbanisation to conserve our finite natural resources,” says Gino Van Begin, Secretary General of ICLEI. “We cannot afford to stimulate economic growth at the cost of air quality, congestion, safety, social equity and the future of our children. I am delighted to see Taoyuan City rise above the challenges of sustainable growth and together work with ICLEI towards a green, open and fair EcoLogistics city to the residents, to the industries, to the entrepreneurs, and to cities worldwide that also have a shared vision for EcoLogistics.”
In 2020 and 2021, Taoyuan City will cooperate with ICLEI in developing EcoLogistics indicators to help cities worldwide assess the baseline of urban freight activities, analyze CO2 emissions and other environmental impacts, and act to establish a path of continuous improvement. The Community will bring together ambitious cities and experts to contribute to emerging solutions and critical thinking in the urban freight sector.
The Launch was also joined by the Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection Administration, stakeholders from Kerry TJ Logistics, DHL Global Forwarding Taiwan, Everterminal and Chunghwa Post, and international experts Dr Sudarmanto Budi Bugroho, Research Manager of the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies, Lea Nina Moral, Senior Environmental Specialist of Santa Rosa City in the Philippines, Togo Uchida, Director of ICLEI Japan Office and Tsu-Jui Cheng, Program Manager and Global Coordinator of Sustainable Mobility at ICLEI World Secretariat.
About Taoyuan
Taoyuan City has been an ICLEI Member since 2011, and has joined the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy in 2017. The City has been actively participating in international dialogues in sustainable developments, such as recent ICLEI World Congress 2018, 2018 Suwon Forum on Asia Human City, 2019 Smart City Summit and Expo in Taipei, and ICLEI Resilience City 2019.
Taoyuan City is one of the most vibrant industrial and technological cities and the fifth populated city nationwide. Over 200 of the nation’s top 500 manufacturing companies choose Taoyuan to be the powerhouse which nationally has brought the City to the top of the industrial output among all cities for nine straight years.
Logistics industry has been the lifeblood of Taoyuan city not only because of its thriving manufacturing industry but also because of its international airport being the 11th busiest airport worldwide by international passenger traffic and the 8th busiest by international freight traffic, according to the Airports Council International 2018.
