Rio+20 Negotiations and Transport
SLoCaT Press Statement
Leading representatives of the Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT) issued a statement regarding the negotiations of the draft outcome of the global United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20.
UN-DESA – SLoCaT Issues Brief Sustainable Transport
To clarify the important role of transport in global sustainable development SLoCaT together with UN-DESA prepared an issues brief on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport in Emerging and Developing Economies. The transport sector is of particular relevance to the green economy theme of Rio+20 because of its potential for wide-ranging environmental, economic and social development benefits. However, for the transport sector to be able to make a significant contribution to the transition to a green economy it is important to have transport sector-specific Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development that will enable UN organizations and multilateral development banks supported by other stakeholders to take on a lead role in scaling-up effective sustainable, low carbon transport policies and interventions.
SLoCaT Response to the Zero Draft Outcome Document
The Zero Draft Outcome Document of the Rio+20 conference was published on January 10, 2012.
- Summary of first round of negotiations on 25-27 January, 2012
- Summary of second round of negotiations, 19-27 March, 2012
- Summary of informal negotiations 23 April – 4 May, 2012
- Summary of informal negotiations 29 May – 2 June, 2012
- Summary of Rio+20, 13 – 22 June, 2012
The SLoCaT Partnership has written twice to the UNCSD focal points expressing its concern on the lack of coverage of sustainable mobility in the Zero Draft Outcome Document and has requested countries to include sustainable mobility as an additional priority area under the section on Green Economy and to include sustainable mobility as a topic to be covered by a future Sustainable Development Goal.
- SLoCaT January 2012 Letter: English version, French version, Spanish version or Portugese version
- SLoCaT April 2012 Letter: English version, French version, Spanish version or Portugese version
- 100 Days to go to Rio+20: 100 Days to Avoid that Sustainable Transport falls by the Wayside in Rio in June.
A final letter was written to the UNCSD focal points at the beginning of the Rio+20 Conference to summarize the case for sustainable transport and to inform the UNCSD focal points on the sustainable transport voluntary commitments and the outcome of the SLoCaT working group on definition, indicators and sustainable transport targets.
- SLoCaT June 2012 Letter: English version, Portugese Version
The efforts by SLoCaT to raise the profile of sustainable transport resulted in several suggestion from amongst others European Union, G77 and the United States to include specific language on Sustainable Transport in the draft outcome document. This was maintained in the final version of the document adopted in June at the Rio+20 meeting:
Transport related stakeholder submissions to the November 2011 Compilation Document
Various stakeholders, including the SLoCaT Partnership have responded to the invitation from the Second Preparatory Meeting to make a submission related to Rio+20 for inclusion in a compilation document which will serve as basis for the preparation of zero draft of the outcome document for the conference. A complete overview of all submissions made can be found here.
- Submission by Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport:
Transport is mentioned 1140 times in 241 out of the 678 submissions. Submissions focusing mainly on transport in developing countries:
- Asia Injury Prevention Foundation
- Commission for Global Road Safety
- Ecuadorian Motorcyclists Association
- FIA Foundation
- The Global Subsidies Initiative
- Hong Kong Automobile Association
- International Union of Railways
- Icelandic Cyclists’ Federation
- International Road Assessment Programme
- Transport Research Foundation
- UNEP’s “Share the Road” Initiative and Amend