A Review of Transport Policies in Support of Climate Actions in Asian Cities and Countries

Madan B. Regmi

doi:10.3390/earth2040043

Abstract

Asia is one of the continents that is the most affected by the impacts of climate change. Asian countries need to take climate actions and mitigate emissions from the urban passenger transport sector. Despite some progress in improving urban mobility in Asian cities, greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector continue to rise. Policy makers who are responsible for managing mobilities must play a major role in decarbonizing the transport sector. In this context, this paper reviews the efforts of selected Asian countries and cities towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the urban transport sector. It will analyze their pledges in the Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and will review their relevant transport sector strategies, policies, and practices. It will also look at trends in transport sector emissions and air pollution in different cities, including the short-term impacts of COVID-19. Lastly, it reviews governance issues and the roles that institutions should play to implement polices to decarbonize transport. Based on this analysis, this paper offers policy suggestions to accelerate actions, enhance cross-sectoral coordination, and move towards carbon neutrality in the transport sector in Asia.

Highlights

We are overwhelmed with news about extreme weather events and their impacts on our lives almost every day
Policy suggestions are offered towards reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport that will contribute towards decarbonization and that will improve air quality in Asian cities
The first observation that can be made is that despite the many efforts of Asian countries to address climate change and to improve mobility, transport emissions are increasing across most countries in Asia

Summary

Introduction

We are overwhelmed with news about extreme weather events and their impacts on our lives almost every day. Extreme heat waves in North America [1], floods in Nepal, China, and India [2,3], wildfires in the United States, Australia, and Southern Europe, and haze in Siberia [4] are just some of the many examples of these types of extreme weather events. Amid these disasters, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or the IPPC, has recently released the first part of the Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis [5,6,7]. Losses and damages from extreme weather events in the Philippines were estimated to have reached 4% of the GDP in 2013 due to Super Typhoon Haiyan [8]

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