UN creates Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has instigated the creation of a High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport. It will consist of 12 leading representatives of the transport sector and is mandated to provide Ban with recommendations on sustainable transport actionable over the next three years.

“The creation of the UN High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport constitutes an important step towards focusing on transport as a priority building block for sustainable development,” commented José Viegas, Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD.

“More than 40 years after the first oil crisis of 1973 and more than 20 years after global warming became a household word, transport is still 97 per cent dependent on fossil fuels and produces almost 25 per cent of man-made carbon emissions. The time has come to end this, because it is simply unsustainable.”

Viegas added that rapid urbanisation also required action in the transport arena to ensure the dramatic growth of cities in the coming decades remains sustainable.

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