Development banks promise $175 billion for clean transport
The world's largest development banks say they will invest $175 billion over 10 years to promote and develop low-emission transportation projects, such as car sharing or rapid bus systems, in Asia, Latin America and Africa to cope with rapid population growth.
The world's largest development banks say they will invest $175 billion over 10 years to promote and develop low-emission transportation projects, such as car sharing or rapid bus systems, in Asia, Latin America and Africa to cope with rapid population growth.
The Asian Development Bank and World Bank, along with six other institutions announced the $175 billion commitment of loans and grants at the U.N. Sustainable Development Conference at the Rio+20 negotiations in Rio de Janeiro in June, where they called for sustainable transportation to be set as a priority in the U.N.'s development agenda.
The banks said they are making the financial commitment at a crucial time for the transportation sector, as cities in Asia and Africa are expected to add hundreds of millions of people to their populations. The pace of urban growth will require new transportation systems to help these cities prevent critical urban congestion, according to the Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), a partnership including UN-organizations, the development banks and other development organizations.
In a joint statement released on Wednesday, the development banks said that with more people driving in developing countries as incomes rise, a lack of efficient transportation in some rapidly growing cities has caused major congestion, which has resulted in lost time and higher transport costs that range from 2 to 5 percent of GDP. The banks also said that if current trends continue, the transportation sector will become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, accounting for 46 percent of global emissions by 2035.
The development banks estimated that between 2010 and 2020, developing countries in Asia will need more than $2.5 trillion in transportation investment, while Latin America will require $0.7 trillion. In Africa, transport investment requirements of $18.3 billion annually will be needed for the period up to 2020, the development banks said.
Image 01 - Rapid bus, Los Angeles. AllyUnion.