On Thursday 16th June 2016, Bo Donners spoke at the First Informal Discussion on HLPF 2016 Ministerial Declaration, on behalf of the global Partnership for Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT).

“The HLPF must pay particular attention to those cross-cutting topics, like transport, that are not themselves SDG but underpin many of the goals and which, because they are not an SDG, run the risk of not getting the attention they deserve. In order to eradicate poverty and to „leave no-one behind‟ safe and sustainable transport, which ties into many of the SDGs, is vital.

Already road crashes kill 1.3 million people per year, almost three times total killed by malaria, and injure another 20-50 million per year, disproportionally affecting developing countries, the poor and the young. Transport related air pollution is a further burden, as are rising greenhouse gas emissions and widespread congestion hampering economic growth in almost all urban areas.

At the same time, we need to create access for 1 billion people in rural areas that do not have access to an all weather road and we need to provide transport infrastructure and services for the additional 2.5 billion people that will be living in cities by 2050.

Fortunately, effective solutions that have been proven at scale and which are economically feasible are available – they are just not implemented.

What do we need? Just two things:

1) Dramatically improved land use planning and design to reduce demand for transport and make walking, cycling and public transport safe and convenient, and

2) Shift investments away from car based solutions that benefit only a small part of society to investments in walking, cycling and public transport for all.

Providing safe, efficient and affordable access to opportunities for all citizen´s decreases poverty, improves economic growth, and reduces inequality – key steps towards achieving SDGs 1, 2, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Given the cross-cutting nature of this area, we ask that safe and sustainable transportation be appropriately include in the ministerial declaration, by stating:

We the Ministers… reaffirm that sustainable mobility reduces poverty, inequality and improves health and sustainability and commit to implementing policies and scaling up investments to deliver sustainable transport for all – so that no one is left behind.

For the full statement, please see here.