SUSTRAN FLASH #17: HABITAT II PROMOTES SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT POLICIES
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The following detailed report on the Habitat II conference is thanks to
Walter Hook of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.
His contact details are at the end of the article.
Thanks to cooperation from the government delegations from the U.S.
and the European Union, with support from key developing country government
delegations, some very progressive language promoting sustainable transport
policies was passed as part of the Habitat II Agenda, or the Habitat II
Global Plan of Action. From the U.S. Delegation, Gary Lawrence and Tim
Honey were particularly helpful, and deserve the thanks of the sustainable
transport community.
THE ADREED TEXT OF THE GLOBAL PLAN OF ACTION
The mandate of the Habitat II Conference, or the "City Summit" was to
promote basic shelter for all and environmentally sustainable human
settlements. In terms of transport, at the conference, all signatory
governments made the commitment, in par. 27d, to:
"Improving access to work, goods, services, and amenities
inter alia, by promoting effective and environmentally sound,
accessible, quieter and more energy efficient transport
systems and by promoting spatial development patterns and
communications policies that reduce transport demand,
promoting fiscal and economic measures as appropriate, so that
the polluter bears the cost of pollution to discourage
polluting modes of transport."
The full text on how to implement the commitment laid out in Paragraph
27d above is outlined in paragraphs 102-104. The full text adopted by the
conference reads as follows:
"6. Sustainable transport and communication systems
102. Transport and communication systems are the key to the
movement of goods, people, information, and ideas, and to
access to markets, employment, schools and other facilities
and land use, both within cities and between cities, and in
rural and other remote areas. The transportation sector is a
major consumer of non-renewable energy and of land and is a
major contributor to pollution, congestion and accidents.
Integrated transport and land-use policy and planning can
reduce the ill effects of current transport systems. People
living in poverty, women, children, youth, older persons, and
people with disabilities are particularly disadvantaged by the
lack of accessible, affordable, safe, and efficient public
transport systems.
102 bis. Developments in communications technologies can have
a significant impact on economic activity and human settlement
patterns. It is important for the potential impacts to be
addressed so as to ensure that maximum benefits accrue to the
community and to reduce any adverse outcomes in relation to
access to services. Managing transport in human settlements
should be done in a way as that promotes good access for all to
places of work, social interaction and leisure facilitates
important economic activities, including obtaining food and
other necessities of life. This should be done while
reducing the negative effects of transport on the environment.
Transport-system priorities should be given to reducing
unnecessary travel through appropriate land-use and
communication policies, developing transport policies that
emphasise mobility alternatives other than the automobile,
developing alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles,
improving the environmental performance of existing modes, and
through appropriate pricing and other policies and
regulations.
103 bis. Non-motorised transport is a major mode of mobility,
particularly for low-income, vulnerable and disadvantaged
groups. One structural measure to counteract the
socio-economic marginalisation of these groups is to foster
their mobility by promoting affordable, efficient and
energy-saving modes of transport.
Actions:
104. In order to achieve sustainable transport in human
settlements, Governments at the appropriate levels, in
partnership with the private sector, the community sector, and
other relevant stakeholders should:
(a) Support an integrated transport policy approach which
explores the full array of technical and management options
and pays due attention to the needs of all population
groups, especially those whose mobility is constrained because
of disability, age, poverty or any other reason;
(b) Coordinate land use and transport planning in order to
encourage spatial settlement patterns that facilitate access
to basic needs such as workplaces, schools, health care,
places of worship, goods and services and leisure, thereby
reducing the need to travel;
(c) Encourage the use of optimal modal composition of
transport including walking, cycling, and private and public
means of transportation, through appropriate pricing, spatial
settlements policies and regulatory measures;
(d) Promote and implement distinctive measures that
discourage the increasing growth of private motorised traffic
and reduce congestion which is damaging environmentally,
economically, socially and to human health and safety, through
pricing, traffic regulation, parking, and land-use planning
traffic calming methods, and by providing or encouraging
effective alternative transport methods, particularly to the
most congested areas;
e. Provide or promote an effective, affordable, physically
accessible and environmentally sound public transport and
communication system giving priority to collective means of
transport, with adequate carrying capacity and frequency
that supports basic needs and the main traffic flows;
Promote, regulate, and enforce quiet, use-efficient and
low-polluting technologies, including fuel-efficient engine
and emissions controls and fuel with a low level of polluting
emissions and impact on the atmosphere and other alternative
forms of energy;
(g) Encourage and promote public access electronic
information services."
NGO LOBBYING ACTIVITIES
This language, whatever its strengths and weaknesses, is as good as it
is thanks in part to the concerted efforts of NGOs. During the
Preparatory Committee Meeting in New York this past February, groups
interested in influencing the contents of the Habitat II Global Plan of
Action organised themselves into a 'Transportation Caucus.' The Caucus was
jointly coordinated by Andy Anderson from London Transport, who was
representing the International Union (Association) of Public Transport
(UITP), and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP),
but included members from the Alliance for a Paving Moratorium, the
Children's' Road Safety Institute, UNED-UK, and many concerned individuals.
At that time many of our recommendations were incorporated into the above
government text.
Between the Prep-Com in February and Habitat II in June, the Transport
Caucus was not entirely satisfied with some of the above language, and we
made several recommendations to strengthen it. We wanted explicit language
recognising the rights of non-motorised transport to have access to the
street network, and we wanted language requiring cars to pay the fully
internalised social cost of their trip. The paragraph on non-motorised
transportation puts these modes in the context of poverty, and does not
explicitly call for promoting these modes. However, because the conference
was so far behind, the Chairman of Habitat II asked that all language
formally or informally agreed upon in February not be re-opened for
discussion, so we were unable to make any further changes in Par. 102-104.
Par. 27d, however, we knew was still open for debate. Once in
Istanbul, the Transport Caucus decided to focus on getting language
stressing that car users should pay the fully internalised social cost of
their trip. Critical support for the Transport Caucus came from members of
the Sustainable Transport Coalition for Asia and the Pacific (SUSTRAN), the
Hungarian Traffic Club, members of the Women's Supercoalition, and Friends
of the Earth Australia. We were told by the delegates from the European
Union that they would not accept language on internalising the full social
costs of car use, but they were willing to accept language requiring the
polluter to pay, which was accepted already in Agenda 21, so the Transport
Caucus focused on lobbying to get this language included.
We convinced the EU to propose this language, and the U.S., Australian, and
G77 delegations to accept this proposal. This lobbying effort was
successful. Only the Saudi's objected, watering the language down
somewhat, adding 'where appropriate' to fiscal measures, which does not
really hurt the text.
OTHER TRANSPORT EVENTS
There were several other important transport events at Habitat II.
The major event was one of the 'Dialogues for the 21st Century.' The
Dialogues were full day meetings of 'experts' which then submitted two
pages of summary recommendations to be included in the Global Plan of
Action as an annex. Some 500 people attended the Transport Dialogue.
There was considerable nervousness among the NGOs, as the major funding for
the Transport Dialogue was coming from the Daimler Benz Corporation which
owns Mercedes. NGOs were ready to criticise the event to the media in case
of problems. However, responsibility for organising the event was
ultimately delegated to the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements'
Transport Staff. Because former ITDP-employee Brian Williams had been
hired in January by UNCHS specifically to fulfil this role, we had a strong
ally in Nairobi. After long discussions, UNCHS agreed to ask the World
Bank and the International Union (Association) of Public Transport (UITP)
to be Co-Sponsors to this event. As the World Bank had recently published
a fairly progressive new transport policy called "Sustainable Transport",
and UITP is very progressive in promoting public transport and
non-motorised transport, and as both have enormous influence and
credibility with both national and local governments, having them lend a
progressive message to the Transport Dialogue we felt would send a very
powerful signal to governments. Ken Gwilliam from the World Bank and Brian
Williams from UNCHS were ultimately responsible for inviting the speakers
and preparing the two pages of comments. They both did an excellent job.
They invited top notch sustainable transport advocates as speakers, such as
Michael Replogle of EDF, Jeff Kenworthy of Murdoch University, Walter Hook
of ITDP, Wojciech Suchorzewsky of Warsaw, Jonas Rabinowitz from Curitiba,
as well as Pierre Laconte of the UITP and Ken Gwilliam of the World Bank.
While the organisers regretted a failed attempt and bringing more gender
and race diversity to the panel, nonetheless, as Brian Williams said to the
Transport Caucus, "Basically, Mercedes Benz has paid the bill for a party
thrown by their ideological enemies."
The spokesman for Daimler Benz was quite forward thinking, recognising
that automobiles will have to be kept in their appropriate place, made more
environmentally sustainable, lighter, more fuel efficient, etc. Apparently
Daimler Benz, which also has investments in light rail, intelligent vehicle
highway systems, ultra-light community vehicles, and other investments, has
decided that their market is in high end luxury vehicles and in a wide
range of more sustainable transport technologies. They made no effort to
influence the contents of the report summarising the Dialogue's main
points, which were prepared with thoroughness and fairness by the World
Bank's Ken Gwilliam with oversight by Brian Williams.
Because of our nervousness about Mercedes sponsorship, UNCHS, ITDP,
and the Conference Chairman Martii Lujanen also made a big effort to
finance another technical meeting on transport issues. This event called
"Infrastructure Essential for Life - Special Event on Transport" was
financed by the Government of Finland. This meeting was attended by some
50 transport specialists, members of government delegations, and the press.
Ultimately, most of the speakers were the same as those at the Dialogue,
but they were able to go into greater detail on some key issues.
A final event was hosted by Kalyan Ray of UNCHS on June 10 on how to
implement meaningfully the transport sections of the Global Plan of Action.
Walter Hook of ITDP stressed the importance of NGOs in holding governments
accountable to the promises they made in the GPA. The text recognising the
importance of non-motorised transportation should help NGOs representing
bicyclists, pedicab drivers, and rickshaws who in many countries are facing
increasing restrictions to their access to city streets. He also stressed
that UN Agencies need to get more involved in promoting non-motorised
transport for environmental and poverty reduction reasons. Ken Gwilliam of
the World Bank called for a global moratorium on leaded gasoline, and
outlined the importance of introducing commercial principals into the
management of public transport systems. Jeff Kenworthy called for an
international fund financed from gasoline taxes to promote public and
non-motorised transport in developing countries. Deike Peters of ITDP
called for more attention to transport for meeting women's mobility needs.
THE NEED FOR FOLLOW-UP ACTION
Ultimately, whether Habitat II will actually lead to any major
improvement in the sustainability and fairness of transport systems around
the world will depend on whether and if NGOs and supportive government
officials use the language agreed to in the Global Plan of Action to change
government policies, and whether major international funding agencies such
as the Multilateral Development Banks and the U.N. Agencies will provide
the necessary funds to make the Habitat II Sustainable Transport vision a
reality.
For more information, Contact Walter Hook, The Institute for Transportation
and Development Policy, 611 Broadway, Rm. 616, New York, New York, 10012,
USA.
email: mobility@igc.apc.org
SUSTRAN is an informal network of organisations and individuals, dedicated
to promoting transportation policies which foster societies and human
settlements that are: Socially Just, Ecologically Sustainable, Politically
Participatory, Economically Productive and Culturally Vibrant.
SUSTRAN welcomes participation by any organisation or individual who
supports this general mission. Please contact us for details.
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