EVENT RECAP: EST Forum Pre-Event with Highlights from the Viet Nam Hub

RegionalVietnam

Oct 12

Written By WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities

On October 12th, 2021, national policy makers from Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) member countries and selected international transport experts gathered to jointly discuss how to deliver on proposed goal 1a of the Aichi declaration. The event started with a vision for fully decarbonizing transport by the Council for Decarbonizing Transport in Asia and introduced futures thinking as a powerful new approach to policy development.

You can access this event’s presentations here on the Changing Transport website.

Decarbonising the transport sector is an imperative to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goal and avoid dangerous climate change. The forthcoming EST Declaration, Making Transport In Asia Sustainable, sets out to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transport sector by 2030 (e.g. through SDG 7.2, 9.1, 13.2), with the intention to move towards full decarbonisation of the transport sector by 2050, or shortly thereafter (proposed goal 1a).

Several countries in Asia have already committed to an economy-wide decarbonisation target, such as China, Japan, Laos, Nepal, Singapore and South Korea; and Bhutan is climate negative at present.

An economy-wide carbon neutrality target means that the transport sector needs to become carbon neutral, too. Among EST countries, Bangladesh, Fiji and Japan have set quantified targets for transport decarbonisation in their NDCs to move toward this goal. Carbon neutrality will require a transformation of transport and mobility systems, making use of regulation and planning, as well as application of advanced technologies through multi stakeholder processes.

The event discussed approaches to developing country-specific visions and roadmaps for zero carbon transport systems, shared real-world cases for translating transport decarbonization roadmaps into action, and helped to understand which EST countries would be interested in developing a decarbonization strategy for their transport sectors.

In the group discussion session on NDC transport ambition in Viet Nam, Mr Vu Hai Luu, Official of the Department of Environment (Ministry of Transport - MOT, Viet Nam), presented the implementation of NDC for transport in Viet Nam. He stressed that the development of an e-mobility ecosystem for Viet Nam is an indispensable mission. NDC-TIA Viet Nam is currently supporting the MOT in designing the national e-mobility roadmap which will act as a foundation to successfully deliver this mission.

This virtual discussion followed Chatham House rules. It was organised in cooperation with the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport as part of the NDC-TIA, funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety's International Climate Initiative (IKI).

Authors: Stephen Draexler, Chi Pham Linh

GIZSLOCATCouncil for Decarbonizing Transport in Asia

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