Addressing Transportation Needs and Climate Change in Developing Nations

Abstract

The analysis of data and information available on developing countries clearly suggests that the current systems and trends of urban transportation, with respect to both mobility and safety, are not sustainable. The cities of developing countries are typically characterized by high-density urban areas, absence of proper control on land use, lack of proper roads and parking facilities, poor public transport, lack of road user discipline etc. This results in the transportation problems, namely accident, congestion, and pollution, taking a very different and much severer shape in developing countries than those in cities of developed countries. Sustainable transport is also important for developing countries from the perspective of climate change, i.e., to improve carbon foot print/ecological foot print (E.F) etc. of transportation systems. From various researches, it has been established that worldwide the road transport has got a substantial share of carbon emissions (20-25% on an average). This makes transportation an important sector for reducing carbon emissions and thus for addressing the climate change issue. These considerations therefore thrust the need for achieving sustainability in urban transport, particularly for developing countries, not just from mobility and safety perspective but also from the perspective of local and global environmental issues. This paper will critically analyze the above issues for developing countries and would suggest possible approaches to address both the transportation needs as well as climate change.