The purpose of this report is to carry out for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) a strategic analysis of specific medium-sized cities in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region that could present opportunities for linking greenhouse gas mitigation and sustainable urban transportation improvement. Cities included in this study range in size from populations of approximately 100,000 to those with populations of about 2 million. The information provided by this report is expected to help identify cities for project development in sustainable transportation. Among the types of projects that could be developed are those for the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and possibly the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
This report does not address the mega-cities of the region—including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; Mexico City, Mexico; Bogotá, Colombia and Lima, Peru – because they have received and continue to receive substantially more attention and assistance than the medium-sized cities of the region. Furthermore, the report does not address Curitiba, Brazil as a candidate city in this report since it, along with Bogotá, is seen as a model for other cities to follow.
The Resources section of this report contains a full listing of the literature and websites used and the interviews conducted.