Climate Change Mitigation in the Urban Transport Sector

The paper aims at identifying interventions within the urban transport sector that are both consistent with the national priorities of developing countries, and with the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) climate change objectives. The analysis reviews the Bank’s urban transport strategy (2002), reflecting a concerted effort to identify priorities for the sector within developing countries. These priorities are then compared with the emerging global environmental objectives of the GEF’s Operational Program – OP-11. The analysis reveals the following areas of overlap: promotion of low-cost public transport modes; non-motorized transport; transport and urban planning to facilitate efficient, low greenhouse gas (GHG) modes of transportation; and, transport demand management measures that favor, or enable public transport, and non-motorized transport. While the paper is limited to the urban transport sector, there is a need to identify opportunities, and overlap between OP11, and Bank priorities for other transport issues, such as long-distance freight, and passenger transport.