Breakthrough at Durban Climate Change Conference 2011?

| 13.12.2011

Durban Climate Change Conference 2011 has ended last weekend. Organized by the UN and attended by representatives of the world's governments, international organizations and civil society from around 200 countries, this conference aimed to advance the results of the previous forums held in Cancun and Copenhagen. One of the decisions taken in this conference was the creation of a new group called the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. Under this group, the work on realising the ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (to keep the average global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius) will begin immediately.

After a big disappointment of what has been achieved in Copenhagen in 2009, the Durban conference was not expected by many parties to deliver much improvement. Many experts pointed two bottlenecks that can hinder the achievements of this conference, i.e. agreement from two global superpowers China and the United States, and priority shift of many countries as a result of economic crisis.

Despite the stagnancy of Climate Change Conferences, many real efforts that have been done in the field of transport are undoubtedly fresh air for us. Many transport projects and studies has been and will be implemented in which “reducing greenhouse gas emissions” is stated as the main objective, since traffic and transport sector is in the top three emissions sources. The rapid development of public transport and non-motorized transport around the globe has certainly played an important role in realizing that objective. We have published some success stories of this development, such as “Large CO2 reduction as a result of BRT in Guangzhou” and “Dutch bicycle industry revives”. As public transport and non-motorized transport are two of our core expertise, Balancia will continue its participation to deliver a sustainable future!