In this event, progress and lessons learned on mobility and sustainable transport in Latin America were presented. 

From 9 to 13 May, the fifth Transport and Climate Change Week 2022 (TCCW), organised by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Protection of Nature, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), took place with the support of the EUROCLIMA+ Programme through its Urban Mobility sector. In this new version, the TCCW deployed 4 hubs globally, connecting sector representatives from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

In the case of the Latin American region, the meeting had a hybrid format, with the gathering of more than 40 representatives from Argentina,  Brazil,  Chile,  Colombia,  Ecuador,  Guatemala,  México,  Perú,  Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, and the online participation of representatives from government, civil society, academia and regional climate action. It provided a space for reflection and growth for the actors in the sector in the region, for delegates as well as organisers, and created a place to evaluate, exchange and innovate in terms of mobility.

The four days of exchange on the issue of Transport in a Changing Climate - Climate Change and International Agreements provided interesting spaces for discussion and experience exchanges, lessons learned and success stories around sustainable mobility and climate action in the sector.

The week started with a retrospective look at people to analyse where we are as a sector. This was followed by a deep dive into mobility issues to analyse specific challenges, contrasting theory and practice with expert clinics and field visits. On Wednesday, in line with the other regions, climate objectives were reviewed in the context of international agreements, looking at the meaning of what we do. The week ended with a discussion on financing, donors and access to resources to motivate implementation. 

“These days have opened up sustainable mobility more for me, they have opened it up in more layers. We are at this turning point for the transformation of the sector, and we know that we have to make better transport for all, leaving no one behind", Daniela Soler, Ministry of Energy, Chile.

The people at the centre of city and mobility planning

The week began with discussions around the importance of putting people at the centre of city planning. The main reflections of the session included the following:

 

• Urban planning under the people-centred Avoid, Change, Improve framework connects, through sustainable mobility, opportunities for access to decent housing, efficient mobility to work and productive places and public spaces for enjoyment.
• The participation of the community, mainly women, girls and adolescents, in the design of these public spaces ensures their sense of belonging, broadens their vision and generates spaces for innovation by responding to diverse needs in mobility and habitability.
• In order to have more climate-friendly cities, urban-housing solutions must be implemented that contribute to reducing long commuting times, promote multiple uses and facilitate innovation in development models.

Another discussion revolved around the implications of putting people at the centre of mobility planning in cities, from both social and technical perspectives. Thus, among the key messages of the conversation we find:

• In the social sphere, planning must be thought of from a rights perspective, such as inclusion and equality, as well as considering socio-environmental impacts, such as pollution and emissions, and its impact on the social dynamics of citizens.
• In the technical sphere, operating and maintenance costs and fares must be considered, as well as the incorporation of new technologies that help the digitalisation of mobility and transport.

In another panel discussion, in which experiences from the city of Bogotá, Colombia were shared, the importance of the care system for the construction of more equitable mobility was addressed. The following conclusions were reached:

• The care system aims to reduce travel times and bring services closer to caregivers, however, incentives and public policies are still needed to reduce the gaps in women's access to the city, as well as to disseminate more and better information on mobility for care.
• Cultural transformation is the main challenge to achieving inclusive mobility, i.e. moving from a citizenry that waits for solutions to one that actively seeks them. In this regard, it is important to seek methodologies and communication strategies between institutions and citizens that facilitate the implementation, the monitoring and the improvement of public policies for sustainable mobility, such as the National Strategy for Sustainable Mobility in Chile.

On Day 1, the importance of putting people at the centre of city planning was discussed. With this, the reasons that generate needs for mobility and the quality of this mobility were discussed in depth.

Green Recovery, the last mile and electromobility

The second day of the programme continued with the discussion on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mobility, such as a significant reduction in travel, increased use of private cars to the detriment of public transport, increased use of bicycles, increased delivery services, among others. In response, national and subnational governments adopted measures to mitigate the risk of contagion and restore safe mobility to promote economic recovery, such as additional funding and adjustments to programmes for the operation of public transport services, the provision of emergency bicycle lanes and bus-only lanes, and the pedestrianisation of streets.

In addition, to support green or sustainable recovery after the pandemic, five criteria were proposed for transport in Latin America, based on the definition of the Coalition for Urban Transitions (CUT):

1. Carbon emission reductions
2. Employment generation potential
3. Attraction of investments
4. Ease of implementation
5. Breadth of benefits

In one of the hybrid sessions, some of the challenges of last mile freight delivery were recognised, such as lack of loading and unloading spaces, increased greenhouse gas emissions, noise, road accidents, insecurity, damage to public space and higher logistics costs. Among the main reflections of the session were the following:

• That goods consolidation hubs or cross-docking spaces for urban distribution of goods by bicycle are a strategic element for the management of last mile logistics in cities, where cycling could be an atomiser of clean and efficient deliveries by limiting a delivery radius, thus also considerably reducing logistics costs.
• With electro-logistics, cost savings are predicted between energy price and hydrocarbon fuel (diesel, gas or petrol), where, in addition, analyses of total costs reveal that they are cheaper in the medium term, including the life cycle of batteries. However, efficient energy consumption requires the deployment of charging infrastructure geared to the supply and demand of goods, as well as available and adequate charging and unloading spaces for energy efficiency.

On the subject of electromobility, the case of Chile and its instruments and regulations on the subject were presented, such as the Long-Term Climate Strategy, the National Strategy for Sustainable Mobility, and the National Electromobility Strategy, which aims for 100 percent of public transport units to be electric vehicles by 2035, and for 100 percent of land freight transport and intercity bus sales to be electric by 2045.

Among the face-to-face activities, a workshop was held to gather inputs for the formulation of the National Active Mobility Strategy (ENMA) with a gender and differential approach, based on a series of success stories that were identified in the region, from Chile, Mexico and Colombia. An action plan was created in which short-, medium- and long-term actions were to be identified in the areas of governance, regulation, cultural transformation, financing, territorial planning, infrastructure, gender and information. This exchange enriched the work on active mobility with an international perspective.

Towards the end of the day, to learn about the practical implementation of the Public Bicycle Policy in Bogotá, a guided visit was made to the facilities of the Bicycle College, one of the strategic actions for the promotion of active mobility in the city and which has a high potential for replicability in other contexts of Latin America.

“Para alcanzar el desarrollo sostenible, debemos acelerar las acciones. Hemos avanzado en normativa, ahora nos toca colaborar con las ciudades para implementar” Diana Quiroz – Directora de Políticas Públicas, Secretaría de Desarrollo Agrario, Territorial y Urbano de México

 

Conference Day: Experiences from Latin America for the world

On Wednesday 11 May, the Latin American region was tasked with hosting the global audience of the Transport and Climate Change Week. The day began with an exchange between the programmes for sustainable mobility in Asia and Latin America (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans, SUMP), a space that allowed learning about the realities of various cities in both regions, and to see how, despite facing such different challenges, the solutions provided by sustainable transport are key to improving the quality of life of citizens. Among the challenges shared were participation and how to effectively incorporate citizens in the process of implementing SUMPs.

The day continued with a high-level panel, which included interventions by Joseluis Samaniego, Director of the Sustainable Development and Human Settlements Division of ECLAC; Diana Quiroz, Director of Public Policy, Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development of Mexico; Juan David Roldan, Coordinator of the Environmental Affairs and Sustainable Development Group GAADS of the Ministry of Transport of Colombia; Cristóbal Pineda Andradez, Undersecretary of Transport, Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications of Chile and moderated by Manuel Olivera - C40 Regional Director for Latin America.

Under the title "Beyond NDC targets: Challenges for closing the gaps", the conversation addressed the challenges faced by countries in advancing climate action in the sector, as well as highlighting replicable practices, such as the important change in technology that countries like Colombia and Chile have promoted; the strengthening of public space and the use of active mobility in land use planning with a focus on the most vulnerable users that Mexico has promoted; the need for intersectoral coordination that Peru and Chile have promoted, as well as the role of digitalisation, data management and systematisation, and the reporting of concrete indicators that are what really tell us the state of progress and decision-making, in order to contribute to the effective reduction of emissions in the case of Paraguay.

The following session was an interactive space to learn during the global transmission about the context, data and contents of the region's NDC proposals and, based on these, to analyse the ambition defined in the countries' commitments, as well as possible proposals to strengthen their mitigation portfolios.

The main results for NDCs in the region were as follows:

• Some countries have included few concrete targets at the level of GHG values mitigated in transport.
• Most countries have concentrated on fuel switching and electrification measures, leaving the Avoid and Mode Shift options out.
• Transport adaptation portfolios need to be strengthened.
• Electrification and hydrogen are key trends for the region.
• The air, maritime and inland waterway transport sectors need to be more directly and ambitiously included, as they have not been given much consideration by decision-makers so far.

The day continued with tactical urbanism as a tool for climate adaptation. The day continued with experiences in Latin American and European cities in the use of this strategy -Bucaramanga, Pasto and Barranquilla from Colombia and Mérida, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Los Cabros and Guadalajara from Mexico and Cologne from Germany-. These examples were from 3 cities in Colombia (Bucaramanga, Pasto and Barranquilla), 4 in Mexico (Mérida, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Los Cabos and Guadalajara) and 1 in Germany (Cologne). The participants developed tactical urbanism proposals based on the application of case studies, a space that allowed them to learn about the tools in practice and to see the potential of the application of tactical urbanism in mobility.

The afternoon culminated with two sessions, one in workshop format, which allowed to know in depth a Cycleinfrastructure Guide for shared bicycles, and the side event "Bogotá Move to Zero", a space where the important advances of electromobility in the city were reviewed, where the public policy of Zero and Low Emission Motorised Mobility 2023 - 2040 of Bogotá was also presented.

Financiamiento para la transformación del transporte

The closing of the Transport and Climate Change Week focused on funding for making the transformation of the sector a reality.

Thus, the day began with a panel, which gave an overview of climate finance, with a special emphasis on the sector, and, based on an interview with Chile, Brazil and Ambato, Ecuador, it was possible to learn about national, federal government and municipal experiences in resource management.

Among the main messages we find:

• Expanding access to finance requires the acquisition of technical capacity by public administrations;
• Funding opportunities should be mapped out with a strategic, sectoral and typology-specific approach.
• Financial actors must respond to the needs raised by project proponents, opportunities are often not appropriate for the context;

The day continued with the "do's" and "don'ts" in mobility project bankability, reflecting on how it is necessary to carry out well-structured projects, aiming at reducing emissions, urban requalification of cities, reducing and mitigating social and environmental impacts. It is important for cities, provincial governments, states and districts to have structured and role-segregated governance sectors that allow for the division of labour throughout the process, from planning to project implementation. For international climate finance, it is also essential that bids allow for international competition.

Through short presentations by representatives of the financial world and national and local governments, the participants were able to learn about the central elements of project bankability, and end the day learning about successful experiences and multisectoral investments, a session that left as a main reflection that to achieve the sustainability of low-emission transport projects, it is essential to design financing mechanisms that involve sources of funding from the private sector, civil society and local government.

The presence of the Hub allowed strengthening the Latin American network of experts, who exchanged on their topics of interest and established points of exchange, such as discussions on strategies to advance in supporting cities in the design of their plans between Brazil, Argentina and Chile; pilot experiences to innovate in electrical solutions between Brazil and Guatemala; exchanges on strategies for active mobility between Colombia and Chile, to name a few.

After two years of the pandemic, the value of methodological exchanges, in which experts were able to practice concrete responses to various challenges, was appreciated by the attendees, who relied on the proposed exercises to move towards partnerships that allow for innovative solutions.

The region is defining an identity when it comes to moving towards sustainable mobility centred on people, taking on cross-cutting issues such as gender, emissions reduction, financing and taking the valuable opportunity to take a holistic view of the problem, assigning a role to innovation in mobility for sustainable development models that allow opportunities for industrialisation and growth of the sustainable mobility value chain. Likewise, facing the challenge of sorting out the historical informalisation of the transport of people and goods to move towards a better quality of life and efficient and digitalised development systems.

There is a diversity of views and challenges, however, there is also a potential to strengthen a professional support network, to strengthen demand for better options and peer learning, given the portfolio of projects that coexist in the region.

About EUROCLIMA+

EUROCLIMA+ is a programme funded by the European Union and co-financed by the German federal government through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as well as by the governments of France and Spain through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. 

The Programme's mission is to reduce the impact of climate change and its effects in 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, promoting mitigation, adaptation, resilience and climate investment. It is implemented according to the "Spirit of Team Europe" under the synergistic work of seven agencies: the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Expertise France (EF), the International and Ibero-America Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

For more information:

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www.euroclimaplus.org

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