Save the Date: 18/09/2017: Workshop − Rethinking Urban Transport through Global Learning

The German Environment Agency (UBA) together with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) are jointly hosting the international workshop “Reverse Innovation − Rethinking Urban Transport through Global Learning”.

The workshop will take place on the 18th of September 2017 in Berlin. In the context of the European Mobility Week (September 18^th to 22^nd 2017) and in parallel to the Transport and Climate Change Week (by GIZ on behalf of BMUB) the workshop will inspire urban mobility development in German cities.

Since challenges of digitalisation and decarbonisation of transport and mobility are on the rise globally, mutual learning for cities become more vital than ever before. Cities can rely on a wide range of experiences in the European Union, which has been promoting city networks and bringing together urban mobility actors for many years. But it is particular worth looking beyond Europe’s borders as foreign business innovations are proving. Electric busses come from China and flexible delivery services via app are daily routine in India and Indonesia.

What are the potentials of reverse innovations in the field of urban mobility? In how far can German cities learn from urban mobility developments coming from developing countries?

Addressing these questions, the president of the German Environment Agency, Ms. Krautzberger, as well as Mr. Dr. Beier, the Member of GIZ Management Board, will jointly open the workshop and kick-start the discussion on the potential of reverse innovation in the field of urban mobility.

Then the workshop will provide practical innovation examples from developing and emerging countries such as China, Egypt, Indonesia and India that ought to ignite a lively discussion with the diverse audience.

Furthermore, a high-level panel discussion will be hosted whose panellists include German Mayors, high ranking company representatives and innovation researchers. Please find a tentative agenda here.

Now available online: Webinar on MRV of Measures in the Transport Sector, highlighting the new Passenger and Freight Transport Volume of the Compendium on GHG Baselines and Monitoring

How does GIZ systematically support capacity development on Measurement, Reporting & Verification (MRV) in transport? Which methodologies are available to set baselines and monitor emission reductions from transport? And what are the linkages between greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring and reporting of measures and national transport GHG inventories?

The GIZ project Advancing Transport Climate Strategies funded by the German Environment Ministry (BMU) under the International Climate Initiative (ICI) hosted a webinar to discuss these questions by introducing two recent publications:

1. The Passenger and Freight Transport Volume of the Compendium on GHG Baselines and Monitoring – a comprehensive guide through existing methodologies GHG quantification of different types of transport mitigation actions.
2. A paper titled Bottom-Up GHG Inventory and MRV of Measures – Synergies and Limitations in the Transport Sector.

The webinar can be viewed in full here.

Webinar viewers learn about the basic approach to GHG accounting in the transport sector and the scope of the Transport Volume. They receive an overview of the baseline and monitoring methodologies covered in the Transport Volume and get an idea how national GHG inventories are linked to MRV of measures.

Speakers included Urda Eichhorst, Transport and Climate Change Advisor at GIZ, Charles Kooshian, Transportation Policy Analyst at CCAP and Marion Vieweg-Mersmann, founder of Current Future.

Please find the presentation slides here.

New Publication: Bottom-Up GHG Inventory and MRV of Measures in the Transport Sector

Exploring the synergies and limitations between bottom-up greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and the Measurement, Reporting & Verification (MRV) of policies and actions in the transport sector – that is the focus of a recently published paper coordinated by GIZ’s Advancing Transport Climate Strategies project and written by Marion Vieweg-Mersmann, founder of Current Future. National GHG emission inventories are vital for reporting transport sector emissions. But to what extent can inventories be used to monitor the success of single mitigation measures?         Bottom-up inventory models for transport-related emissions allow for a more detailed analysis in comparison to top-down assessments in national inventories that are based on fuel consumption only. They therefore require an extensive amount of data collection. How far can data collected for inventory preparation be used for the MRV of measures?

On the one hand the paper stresses that using data from a bottom-up inventory, such as emission factors, for the MRV of measures enhances the comparability of the effects of measures and can help to develop a consistent national system for data collection and reporting. On the other hand, data collected for the MRV of measures may be used to increase the level of detail of the inventory. However, differences in geographic boundaries or a lack of detail in inventory data, which is required for MRV of certain measures, can limit the applicability of data from the transport GHG inventory for the MRV of measures. Consequently, it depends on the measure at hand if it can be monitored largely based on data already collected for a bottom-up inventory or if most data needs to be collected separately.

Want to learn more? Please download the publication here.

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.