Oliver Lah

Pathways towards decarbonising the transportation sector

Transport plays a key role in delivering on the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda. While providing essential services to society and economy, transport is also an important part of the economy and it is at the core of a number of major sustainability challenges, in particular climate change, air quality, safety, energy security and efficiency in the use of resources. This chapter identifies the linkages between decarbonisation pathways, policy design, coalition building and institutional frameworks. The analysis shows that there are critical interlinkages between these aspects. Decarbonisation of the transport sector is not possible through isolated measures. A broad range of local and national actions are needed to bring the sectors on to low-carbon development path. Furthermore, a holistic policy approach is needed to deliver on wider sustainable development objectives. Addressing a broader range of policy objectives can help forming coalitions and consensus among key political and societal actors. Finally, Consensus oriented institutions are needed to maintain a stable policy environment that enables the long-term transitions towards a low-carbon development path. The chapter identifies the potential for land transport climate change mitigation actions at the local and national level, opportunities for synergies of sustainable development and climate change objectives and governance and institutional issues affecting the implementation of measures.