Sustainable Transport for Global Development and Climate Protection

Synopsis of discussions now available!

Please join the Atlantic Council’s Urban World 2030 working group for a roundtable discussion of sustainable transport strategies at a global scale. Low-carbon, sustainable transport boosts equity of access to opportunities and economic development, cuts public health costs of air pollution and traffic accidents, and curbs greenhouse gas emissions at a net negative cost to society. But unmanaged motorization remains the dominant model of development across much of the world. Weak institutional capacity and governance and ineffective financing and policy block rapid scale-up of proven sustainable transport strategies. In an effort to address these issues, the world’s eight largest multilateral development banks pledged $175 billion for more sustainable transport at the Rio+20 global sustainable development conference in 2012, with monitoring and reporting, but there is still much to be done.

This roundtable workshop will bring together key experts and stakeholders to discuss a set of key questions in this area. How might the transport sector be a critical building block for sustainable development within the United Nations climate change and development frameworks? What role could the U.S. play to advance global sustainable transport? What role could the U.S. and multilateral banks play to advance global sustainable transport? How can transport and urban infrastructural investments be redirected toward sustainability and away from long-term lock-in of unsustainable investments?

A discussion with:

Otaviano Canuto (TBC)
Vice President and Head of Network
Poverty Reduction and Economic Management
The World Bank

Marc Juhel
Sector Manager, Transport
The World Bank

Rafael Acevedo-Daunas
Transport Lead Specialist
Inter-American Development Bank

Cornie Huizenga
Joint Convener
Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport

Polly Trottenberg
Under Secretary for Policy
US Department of Transportation

Moderated by:

Michael Replogle
Managing Director for Policy & Founder
Institute for Transportation & Development Policy