The global coronavirus pandemic brought a wave of public and private initiatives to help societies adapt and recover, from economic stabilization and safety measures to new business models and shifts in consumption. Many of these initiatives are not green, despite the fact that society needs major changes to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change and ensure health and equity for all.
Transport is a key sector in need of big changes, comprising 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 24% of carbon emissions. Meanwhile, over a million traffic fatalities occur every year, millions are exposed to deadly air pollution on roads and the majority of residents in many cities — often the poorest — cannot reach a job within an hour of travel time.
In a new paper with the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance, WRI evaluated countries’, cities’ and companies’ actions during the pandemic that impact the transport sector. WRI found that of the $298 billion in global recovery funds catalogued by the Energy Policy Tracker in the transport sector between March 2020 and February 2021, only 44% positively affect the climate and sustainability. However some of the most encouraging actions came from the local level. Hundreds of cities — including Lima, Paris and Addis Ababa — added new bicycle and walking facilities as pandemic safety measures.
As, per dollar invested, public transport creates more than three times as many jobs as building new highways much of the focus as part of the recovery has been on rail. During the Great Recession, 26% of global green stimulus funds went to rail, making it the largest category of green stimulus investments across sectors.
To date, stimulus spending after COVID-19 has not been so different: Energy Policy Tracker identified almost $30 billion going to rail expansion. Countries collectively commissioned or planned over 32,000 km of inter-city, high-speed rail, including first-ever high-speed rail connections in countries like India. High-speed rail is 12 times more energy efficient per passenger-kilometer than airplanes and cars. Germany’s Deutsh-Bahn rail corporation announced plans to pilot zero-emission, hydrogen-powered trains by 2024. Meanwhile, cities in China and India are increasingly shifting goods from truck beds to boxcars, saving on emissions and improving local air quality.
The full article and report can be found at the World Economic Forum site:
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