Roundtable on NDC Implementation and Transparency in Transport
On 12 May, the GIZ project Advancing Transport Climate Strategies organised a Round Table Discussion that elaborated on the lessons learnt regarding NDC implementation in the transport sector, ways to increase the level of ambition and the requirements of transparency frameworks in the sector. Since many international cooperation projects are already supporting countries on different aspects of NDC implementation in the transport sector, the Round Table captured the increasing need to exchange, manage knowledge and coordinate activities at the interface between transport and climate.
Back to back to the UNFCCC Meetings of the Subsidiary Bodies, the diverse discussion was attended by more than 30 international participants from different climate and transport initiatives and from different Parties.
The panelists identified aligning NDC formulation and long-term climate strategies as a crucial requirement to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. However, since the first NDCs were put together hastily to meet the Paris deadline, many lack an appropriate database. This development was confirmed by Ms. Achieng Ogola, Climate Change Directorate Kenya who stressed the urgent requirement of working towards appropriate data robustness in order to adequately commit to NDCs. Furthermore, it should be taken into consideration that different countries have different starting points to develop their sectoral climate strategies. For developing countries it is essential to receive proper support and capacity development in implementing NDCs, which is also an important precondition to enhance the level of ambition.
With regard to funding mitigation in the transport sector, some participants highlighted the need for a clear policy framework in order to leverage private sector finance. Private investors were only attracted if they could envision a business case and a high investment security. Nevertheless, private finance cannot be expected to facilitate the bulk of mitigation options in the transport sector nor will climate finance alone solve the sustainable transport challenges. Around 28 billion dollars had been spent by developing banks on transport – much more than climate finance would be able to deliver, another participant argued. Capacity development was outlined to be key in addressing the lack of bankable and sustainable projects, but it is not the final solution to the funding challenge – funding innovations are needed. Especially low rated countries are struggling to access finance.
While the many presented initiatives showed that climate actions in the transport sector are increasingly gaining momentum, marginal approaches to sustainable transport are not enough – “we cannot use the climate solutions of yesterday to solve tomorrow’s challenges of decarbonized transport”.
The speakers were:
- Rob Bradley, Director of Knowledge and Research, Technical Support Unit NDC Partnership
- Victoria Novikova, Programme Officer, United Nations Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC)
- Klaus Wenzel, Team Leader IKI Support Project for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (GIZ)
- Sandra Hannusch, Project Manager, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KFW)
- Cornie Huizenga, Secretary General, The Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT)
- Charles Kooshian ,Transportation Policy Analyst, Centrum for Clean Air Policy (CCAP)
- Wei-Shiuen Ng, Transportation and Climate Change Specialist, International Transport Forum (ITF)
- Christian Mettke, Advisor, TRANSfer- Facilitating the development of ambitious Transport mitigation actions (GIZ)
- Itzel Obregon, EcoMobility Officer, International Council for Local Environmental Initiative(ICLEI)
- Patrick Oliva, Co-founder Paris Process on Mobility and Climate (PMCC)
- Ramón Cruz, International Policy Program Manager, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)
- Monica Echegoyen, ICAT Coordinator, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
- Jürgen Baumann, Senior Advisor, C40 Cities Finance Facility (GIZ)
- Urda Eichhorst, Transport and Climate Change Advisor, Advancing Transport Climate Strategies (GIZ)
The event was supported by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).
For more Information:
Download the presentations by all speakers here.
Find the Round Table handout here.