Op-ed
Transport - a pivotal sector in Asia and the Pacific’s journey to sustainability By Dr Shamshad Akhtar
Transport is a key contributor to economic growth, prosperity and tosocietal well-being. Physical links across Asia and
the Pacific have increasingly improved throughyears of steady investments in the Asian Highway, a project endorsed by
the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) commission at its 48th session in
1992 to promote intergovernmental agreements to develop a regional highway network,and the Trans-Asian Railways, as well
as through the facilitation of land transport projects. These intertwined projects have resulted in a network of 140,000
kilometers of roads being developed in 32 countries, which,in turn has enabled better connectivity within Asia as well
as betweenAsia and Europe,and contributed to the development of other related infrastructure.
Furtherdeepening Asian transport connectivity, however,requires that weconsider some additional imperatives. For
instance, we must ensure that regional connectivity is seamless and promotes multimodal connectivity to allow for the
most cost-effective and time-efficient delivery of goods from one point to another. To this end, some important regional
initiatives, such asthe Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, and the Eurasian
Economic Union, provide strategic visions that willhelp forge broader regional and international transportation
connectivityin our region. Moving forward, these initiativesmust develop missing corridors and link Asia better with
internal and outside markets in order to better promote seamless connectivity. Beyond this, we as a region must also
develop a betterunderstanding ofhow to harmonise these plans with the principles of sustainable development.
To promote regional transport sector development that is in sync with andreinforces the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, we must focus our efforts on three areas.
First, we must urgently curb the transport sector’s contribution to the Asia-Pacific region’s GHG emissions. Asia’s
motorized transport emissions are responsible for 23 per cent of global aggregate emissions and are set to rise to 31
per cent by 2030. If no action is taken, transport will become the single largest emitter of GHGs, responsible for 46
per cent of the share of global emissions by 2035. Success in meeting the global climate change targets laid out in the
Paris Agreement will require both reducing transport emissions and strengthening the resilience of transport
infrastructure to the effects of climate change.
Second, tackling traffic congestion in our cities will help us unlock bottlenecks to economic growth byspeeding up
transportation and reducing costs associated with the movement of goods.To illustrate the heavy effects of such
bottlenecks, traffic congestion in Bangkok, where the UN ESCAP is headquartered, costs roughly 6 per cent of Thailand’s
annual GDP.
Third, sustainability of transport calls for a careful response to the public health dimension of transport. Road
accidents continue to be one of the leading causes of fatalities in our economies, killing over 700,000 people annually
in the Asia-Pacificand injuring many more. The economic costs of road accidents are estimated to be 3per cent of global
GDP. Asia-Pacific’s low and middle income countriesare shouldering road accident costs as high as 5per cent of GDP,
which is in many cases greater than the total value of their overseas development assistance.
Recognizing these needs and challenges, the UN ESCAP, with support from the Government of the Russian Federation, is
organizing a Ministerial Conference on Transport in Moscow on the 5to 9 of December 2016 to provide an opportunity to
ourmember States to develop a new five-year regional action programme for sustainable transport. At its core, the
regional action programme will promote integrated intermodal transport systems to balance, link and coordinate the
varied modes of transport such as roads, railways, maritime and aviation, in order to achieve optimum economic, social
and environmental performance.
Thisprogramme will facilitate greater intra-regional investment and trade in the region, and will also guide the
transport sector to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions by optimizing resources, improving transport modal
choices and increasing efficiencies. Throughenhancing road safety, advocacy, policy, legislation, infrastructure
facilities and cross-border operations this programme willenable remote and poor, rural communities better access to
markets, investment, health, education and social needs. The programme will also enable countries of the region tobe
better equipped to develop and implement evidence-based policies and plans to address urban transport challenges in
order to underpin future economic growth.
Implementing this new regional action programme will be a challenging, but ultimately critical task if we are to realize
the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda. ESCAP, as the regional arm of the United Nations in the Asia-Pacific, will support the
countries of the region to take the visionary steps and work together in order to ensure the contribution of the
transport sector to sustainable development.
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Dr. Shamshad Akhtar is the Executive Secretary of the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and
the Pacific (ESCAP). She will be speaking about Asia’s new energy realities and the implications for regional energy
security at the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2016.