News
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The Transport Community Comes Together in Support of Accelerating Action on Climate Change - Photo: Beijing Metro - Credits: Benoit Colin/WRI
Shanghai, PRC and Paris, France 24th November, 2015
Transport is one of the fastest growing sources of CO2 world-wide and is the largest energy consuming sector in 40% of countries worldwide while being the second largest in most of the remaining countries. Action to limit global average temperature rise to less than 2°C, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) without including the transport sector is unrealistic.
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São Paulo, Brazil Photo Credit: Mariana Gil/WRI Brasil Cidades Sustentáveis
BRASILIA, BRAZIL (November 19, 2015) - The World Health Organization (WHO) released the Declaration from the Second Global High-level Conference on Road Safety: Time for Results. The Declaration recommends a set of actions to improve road safety through stronger management, legislation and enforcement.
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Announcement Supports UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 11 and Second Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety
Claudia Adriazola-Steil. (Photo Credit: Maria Fernanda Cavalcanti, WRI Brasil Cidades Sustentáveis)
According to the 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) Global status report on road safety, 1.25 million people die every year from traffic crashes, with a majority of fatalities occurring in developing countries.
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The initiative will help the city, businesses, and employees improve productivity and save money
Photo credit: EMBARQ Mexico
The Santa Fe business district in the west of Mexico City is known as a “3D” area—distant, dispersed, and disconnected. Employees spend an average of 2.6 hours a day (26 days a year) stuck in traffic attempting to access the district. Intense traffic congestion affects other areas like Insurgentes Sur to the south of the Mexican capital, and Reforma-Centro in the center of the city. And in the Polanco-Lomas business center, average rush hour speeds reach a low of 7.5 km/h (4.66 mph), and traveling just 500 meters can take up to half an hour.
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A seminar and workshop in São Paulo gathered experts to share ideas from the Latin American experience
São Paulo, October 28, 2015. Photo credit: Mariana Gil/WRI Brasil Cidades Sustentáveis
Transit-oriented development (TOD) brings together both urban and transport planning and has been proven a model for creating compact and connected urban communities. However, despite its economic benefits, TOD still faces financing barriers in many Brazilian cities.
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The team conducted a road safety and accessibility inspection to prevent future BRT crashes
Photo Credit: EMBARQ Türkiye
Şanlıurfa, Turkey has a population of nearly two million—which may seem small compared to mega cities, like Beijing—but is still greatly suffering from congestion. As the city’s population rises, the capacity of Şanlıurfa’s public transport has been burdened, causing residents to turn to personal vehicles. To combat congestion and meet the needs of citizens, city officials created a bus rapid transit (BRT) system that is integrated with existing bus lines.
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More than 1,100 participants convened in Mexico City to share best practices and learn about sustainable cities
Panel discussion at XI Congreso in Mexico City with Adriana Lobo, Director of EMBARQ Mexico, speaking. Photo Credit: EMBARQ Mexico
From October 12 – 14, 2015 our team in Mexico held the XI International Congress on Cities and Transport in Mexico City (XI Congreso Internacional de Ciudades y Transporte). Over the course of three days, more than 1,100 individuals participated in panel discussions, presentations and specialized workshops led by former presidents, transport experts and entrepreneurs.
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Pai has helped bring sustainable urban mobility to cities across India
Pedestrians and auto-rickshaws compete for space on the streets of Mumbai, India. Photo by EMBARQ.
Sustainability Outlook, a leading market access, insight and collaboration platform tracking actions related towards sustainability in India, has recognized Madhav Pai, Director of WRI Ross Center in India, as Parivartan Trailblazer of the Year 2015. The prestigious award is a recognition of Pai’s outstanding leadership establishing our Center’s EMBARQ sustainable urban mobility initiative in India.
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New manual from WRI Brasil Sustainable Cities helps businesses develop corporate mobility plans step by step
Highway in São Paulo, Brazil Photo Credit: mlsirac/Flickr
Commutes to and from work make up about half of all daily travel in Brazil. The majority of commuters travel at peak hours, which—coupled with low-quality public transport and sprawl—is harmful for governments, businesses and people. The current model of development centers on private vehicles, which has increasingly resulted in congestion, poor mobility and air pollution. However, both public and private employers can do a lot to encourage employees to commute in more sustainable ways.
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Workshop brought together local officials and experts to share best practices on implementing new policies
Downtown Beijing. Photo Credit: LanguageTeaching/Flickr
According to the Beijing Municipal Committee of Transport (BMCT), the number of vehicles in Beijing has reached 5.591 million, with 30.99 million daily trips within the sixth ring road at the end of 2014. As a result, air quality in the area has declined sharply. Latest data from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) shows that among local pollutants, emissions from motor vehicles contributed to 31.31 percent of fine particular matter, for example.