The NDC Transport Initiative for Asia

The NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA) aims to facilitate a paradigm shift to zero-emission transport across Asia. The program will achieve this shift by supporting China, India and Vietnam to develop comprehensive decarbonisation strategies and solutions to implement them. Beyond the three countries, on the regional and global level, the program will maximize impact by reaching out to additional countries in Southeast Asia, sharing lessons learned, increasing discourse on decarbonizing transport and promoting efficient, multi-stakeholder approaches coordinated between government ministries, civil society, and the private sector.

The NDC Transport Initiative for Asia is a joint programme of seven organisations and is is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) which is implemented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and in close cooperation with the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV). Implementing organisations are GIZ, World Resources Institute (WRI), International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), International Transport Forum (ITF), Agora Verkehrswende (AGORA), SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport and Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).

SLOCAT supports the outreach and engagement activities of the project at the regional and global levels. This involves work to enhance synergies across climate action and sustainability agendas. It also rolled out through the curation of multi-stakeholder dialogue and understanding; as well as peer knowledge exchange for policymakers and technical experts.

The regional initiative aims at a holistic approach to decarbonize the transport sector in India, China and Vietnam. This includes, for example, the development of a coherent strategy for efficient policy approaches which is coordinated between various sector ministries, civil society and the private sector.

The transport sector accounts for 23% of the global energy-related CO₂ emissions (IEA 2017). The Chinese transport sector alone caused 781 Mt CO2e emissions in 2014. Together with India (231 Mt CO2e) and Vietnam (32 Mt CO2e), the three countries emitted about 1 Gt CO2e in 2014 (IEA 2017). Rapid economic growth combined with an ongoing urbanisation trend and increasing motorisation lead to a further increase in traffic amount in the three partner countries. Therefore, the transition to a decarbonisation path for the transport sector in Asia is essential to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement for 2050.

In each of the partner countries, the consortium supports the design and information of stakeholder processes and the development of selected climate protection measures. In this way, the partners are supported in making their sectoral contributions to the achievement of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the Paris Agreement and in raising their ambitions for long-term strategies and the 2025 NDCs.

As a regional initiative, the programme disseminates appropriate knowledge in Asia via existing platforms. By linking with regional stakeholders and other Asian countries, it contributes to promoting a comprehensive approach to decarbonising transport. At the global level, the programme will contribute its experience to the UNFCCC process.

Activities and updates

Leveraged the LEDS GP network to share NDC-TIA activities, and the MPGCA network for planning activities leading up to the Asia Pacific Regional Climate Week in July, along with COP26 engagement in November.