Vice Minister Bambang Susantono of the Ministry of Transport, Indonesia addressed senior government officials and transport experts in the forum “ASEAN in 2050: The Transport System and its Implications on Energy, Environment, and Climate Change” held in Bali, Indonesia on 22 February 2012. The forum is the kick-off meeting for the Study on Long-term Action Plan for Sustainable and Low Emissions Transport in the ASEAN supported by the Institution for Transport Policy Studies (ITPS) based in Japan and implemented in cooperation with the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities Center (CAI-Asia) and the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in UK.
The ASEAN and its member countries are increasingly playing a vital role in the global economy with rising GDP growth and investments. However, it is also one of the most vulnerable regions to the effects of climate change and continues to face the problems brought about by the current transport systems such as air pollution, chronic traffic congestion, and road fatalities.
Group Photo of Participants
The Vice Minister said that “To deal with the growing threat of climate change in ASEAN, the challenge for the transport sector is to find and to implement a sustainable pathway for transportation that limit GHG emissions from transport and minimize other negative externalities without compromising economic growth and social inclusion. To successfully address this challenge, ASEAN will have to ensure that transport is increasingly integrated in climate policies and that climate becomes a standard and accepted part of transport policies.”
The meeting was attended by representatives and experts from selected ASEAN member countries including Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), German Technical Cooperation (GIZ), International Transport Forum (ITF), and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).
This Study on Long-term Action Plan for Sustainable and Low Emissions Transport in the ASEAN will estimate CO2 emissions from 2005 until 2050 considering different transport modes and fuel use, as well as air pollution.
As a next step, potential policy packages will be identified, in consultation with policy-makers and transport experts at the national and regional level, to keep CO2 emissions in 2050 at the same level as 2005 and improve transport systems in the ASEAN using the Visioning and Backcasting approach. Initial results of this Study including the development of the Visioning and Backcasting tools will be presented later this year as part of the Better Air Quality Conference 2012 in Hong Kong, SAR on 3-5 December 2012.
This Study is a follow-up to the initial analysis conducted by CAI-Asia for the ASEAN and selected member countries as part of the Study of Transport System in a Low Carbon Society led by the ITPS with support from the Nippon Foundation.
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