Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the urban transport sector is a major challenge in addressing global climate change. More than 25% of the world’s energy-related emissions are due to the transport of people and goods, with the transport sector being the second largest emitter.

Addressing emissions from urban mobility is not only necessary to maintain the global temperature rise within the expected limits, but also to favour social equity, economic prosperity and quality of life in the cities. In fact, the congestion of road infrastructure paralyses the urban areas of many developing and emerging countries, while air pollution becomes a very serious problem in many cities. Therefore, sustainable mobility, with low carbon emissions, can provide global as well as local benefits.

The population of Latin America exceeds 625 million and the region is the most urbanised in the world, with 80% of the population living in cities. It is not surprising that most Latin American countries are considering measures to reduce emissions in the urban or transport sector, either explicitly or indirectly in their NDCs.

More than 63% of the NDCs globally propose mitigation measures in the transport sector. Among the more than 200 measures proposed in the NDCs, there is a strong bias towards passenger transport, which is included in 91% of the NDCs. Among them, measures related to urban transport are mentioned in 74% of the NDCs.

Goal:

The “Urban Mobility” component aims to develop national policies and programmes for urban mobility and multimodal integrated planning at the city level to accelerate the transition of Latin American cities towards sustainable urban mobility with low carbon emissions.