Lagos, Nigeria, is the sixth largest city in the world. It is also the fastest growing and one of the most congested in the world. Commuting for Lagosians can be a serious challenge. Until recently, transport options to get to work were either small minibuses (the danfos) or larger minibuses (molues). Traffic was bad and transport expensive.

With funding from the World Bank and the Agence Française de Développement, the Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA) designed and created the first bus-based mass transit system (BRT) in Africa. It aimed both to enhance transport efficiency in the city and to reduce transport emission. Successful beyond expectation, the BRT system has moved in the last five years of operations more than 400 million passengers. According to LAMATA, reduction in transport related greenhouse gas emissions was measured to be around 13% in project areas – due to the use of the buses and reduce trips of private cars. And a reduction of 20% in road accidents was also observed in those areas.

The transport-climate equation

Catering to an increasing demand for transport services is a challenge that both developed and developing countries face. At the same time, transport represents 23% of energy related CO₂ emissions and is therefore a significant contributor to climate change. A further complication to the transport-climate equation is that transport systems that cannot withstand the emerging impacts of climate change will prove burdensome. They will impose high costs for maintenance and repair; limit community access to jobs, schools, and hospitals; and cause large economic losses. Ensuring the climate resilience of transport investments is also critical in allowing other sectors to quickly rebound after natural disasters and climate-related shocks.

The other side of the equation however, as illustrated by the Lagos BRT example, is that climate-friendly transport solutions are also those that serve the poorest and most vulnerable members of the community, because they are less expensive and often provide better access than other means. Women, for example, are less likely to own and use a car and more likely to use walk or use public transportation as their main mode of transport. By removing cars or minibuses from the roads, BRTs, metros and trains also improve road safety. And importantly, while today’s investments in sustainable transport will pay economic, social and climate dividends now and for future generations, the reverse is true: investments now in carbon-heavy transport will lock-in countries and cities on unsustainable development paths.

MDBs stand ready to support COP21 transport commitments

This message has not gone unheeded. Ahead of COP21, a significant number of governments are committing, through their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, to invest further in climate-friendly transport. Benin, for example, has pledged as part of its INDC to improve traffic flow in large cities, to develop a river-lagoon transport system with navigable rivers, and to modernize and extend its rail infrastructure. Bangladesh has identified as potential mitigation action modal shift from road to rail, including through metro systems and bus rapid transport systems in urban areas. Bangladesh also mentioned reducing traffic congestion, including by building expressways and with public transport measures. 

To support these commitments, the 8 Multilateral Development Banks have pledged» to increase financial and technical assistance to countries implementing sustainable transport solutions.

“The international community, MDBs and other transport stakeholders, must rally behind developing countries efforts to tackle the climate-friendly transport agenda.

The MDB pledge is threefold:

• Climate Finance: In autumn 2015, MDBs committed to significantly ramp up their climate financing for adaptation and mitigation. The World Bank, on that occasion, committed to increase its climate financing to potentially $29 billion annually. Transport will play a key role in the implementation of that commitment.

• Low-carbon Transport Solutions: The MDBs will increase their focus on low-carbon transport solutions and will continue to harmonize tools and metrics to assess transport-related GHG emissions.

• Adaptation: The MDBs will jointly develop a systematic approach to mainstream climate resilience in transport policies, plans and investments.

Transport Resilience – a new World Bank report

The MDBs, in their transport statement, emphasize the importance of improving the climate resilience of transport systems and commit to build awareness on the criticality of protecting transport services so that they can continue to deliver social and economic benefits under current and future climate change scenarios.

In its new publication entitled “Moving Towards Climate-Resilient Transport”, the World Bank notes that while countries are investing massively in transport infrastructure – estimated globally at $1.4 to $2.1 trillion per year – few developing countries have yet developed a systematic approach to mainstreaming the building of resilience in the transport sector.

The World Bank has been working with client countries to ensure that transport plans and investments are robust to current and future climate: for example in Morocco where the World Bank conducted a study on the adaptation of the Moroccan transport sector to climate change and evaluated the vulnerability of the road sections; or in Can Tho City, Vietnam, where it looked at the costs to transport from flooding.

The World Bank is now committed, in partnership with the MDBs and other key actors in the transport community, to scale up resources and expertise to clients to enable them to integrate climate change analysis into transport plans and investments and to thus enhance local and countrywide climate resilience.

» Moving Toward Climate-Resilient Transport: The World Bank’s Experience from Building Adaptation into Programs (PDF, 14.33 MB)

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Joint Statement by the Multilateral Development Banks on Sustainable Transport and Climate Change

MDBs Join Forces to Ramp up Climate Action in Transport

We, the group of eight multilateral development banks (MDBs),[1] commit to supporting countries implementing sustainable transport solutions. We will do so by providing critically needed financial and technical support to assist countries in responding to rising aspirations for greater mobility and connectivity, in a sustainable way. This will include stimulating and supporting increased global climate action through transport.

We believe that climate change is a defining challenge of our time. Actions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and stabilize warming at 2 degree Celsius will fall short if they do not include the transport sector. Reversing the trend in emissions growth will require action on mitigation to decouple GDP growth from GHG emissions. Action is also needed to adapt transport systems to better withstand the impacts of climate change – access to safe and reliable transport services is woven into the fabric of economies and communities so natural disasters and other climate related service disruptions can have drastic consequences. 

To date, over 160[2] Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have expressed their intention to take enhanced action on climate mitigation and adaptation through national plans or Intended Nationally-determined Contributions (INDCs). Many INDCs highlight the need for investment in sustainable transport systems and services to support the transition towards low-carbon and climate-resilient growth.  

At the United Nations Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012, our eight MDBs committed to invest in more sustainable transport in developing countries. We are on track to meet our pledge of $175 billion of loans and grants for more sustainable transport in developing countries by 2022 – with $65 billion committed so far. We have also developed common arrangements for measuring and monitoring our support for sustainable transport – with our third joint annual progress report published this week.[3]

Going forward, we recognize the need to integrate climate change considerations into transport planning, design and investment, and support action that embraces climate mitigation and adaptation with both public and private sector across all transport modes. We also expect to take part in the process of deciding on indicators to be used for tracking progress on the transport-relevant Sustainable Development Goals. 

Climate Finance[4]

In 2015, the MDBs committed to significantly ramp up climate finance for adaptation and mitigation by 2020, and transport is expected to play a key role.[5]

With the aim to increase transparency of climate finance flows and to better coordinate and improve support to countries adapting to and mitigating climate change, the MDBs have developed a harmonized approach to track climate finance flows. Over 2011-14, when we began jointly tracking climate finance flows, we have delivered over US$100 billion in financing for climate action in developing and emerging countries.[6] This includes $19 billion for adaptation and mitigation in the transport sector.  

Low-carbon Transport Solutions

We will accelerate our efforts to increase the sustainability of existing and new transport systems. There are significant opportunities to shift policies and investments through public transport system design, vehicle efficiency improvement, demand management, regional development policies, and land-use planning. 

To improve transparency on the climate impacts of our investments, we have now agreed on joint principles for GHG accounting in transport, and will continue to work towards harmonizing our approaches for estimating GHG emissions. 

More Action on Adaptation

We recognize the importance of improving the climate resilience of transport systems. We commit to building awareness of the need to protect transport services so that they can continue to deliver social and economic benefits under current and future climate change scenarios. We will work towards building a more systematic approach to mainstreaming climate resilience in transport policies, plans and investments through developing improved tools and methodologies, capacity building and project financing. To this end, we have been working with other international financial institutions to screen potential climate risks in our project pipelines.  

The case for climate action has never been stronger. We are committed to work with the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport and the international community to continue making sustainable transport a priority sectoral focus for climate action.  

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[1] African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and the World Bank.

[2] As of November 19, 2015. See http://unfccc.int/focus/indc_portal/items/8766.php

[3] See Progress Report (2014-15) of the MDB Working Group on Sustainable Transport. 

[4] With respect to climate finance the MDBs referred to are African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank Group.

[5] See Joint MDB statement on Climate Finance.

[6] See 2014 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance.