Blog post
How can greening urban transport generate jobs and promote sustainable development?
An affordable, green and efficient transportation sector may help provide workers better access to jobs, while lessening their carbon footprint and boosting productivity.
Growing environmental concerns, particularly in the urban context, will force a reconsideration of the role played by cars and trucks. Greater emphasis on urban public transport combined with urban planning that favours walkable cities will dictate the direction and speed of changes in the transportation sector.
In particular, reliable and affordable transport is essential in gaining access to jobs, and thus for a flourishing economy and for human development more broadly. Poorly planned or designed transport systems and unnecessary urban sprawl can make access to jobs physically difficult and costly, especially for low-income households, who must allocate a larger share of their meagre incomes to cover transport expenses.
UN HABITAT notes that about 80 per cent of Africa’s urban dwellers “do not have access to personal vehicles and a large proportion does not even have any access to motorized transit services”. The rise of the private informal transport sector, including unlicensed minibuses or motorcycle taxis, is closely related to the failure and demise of many formal public transport systems.
The result has been low-quality service and excessive costs, with many poor urban residents spending 30 per cent or more of their income on travel to the workplace. In both wealthy and poor countries, a functioning and affordable public transit system plays a critical role in achieving a greater degree of social equity. Sustainable mobility provides positive benefits both for access to jobs and for economic development.
The shift away from heavy reliance on private cars towards lower-carbon urban public transport alternatives is likely to yield gains in other areas, such as passenger transport, freight transport and transportation services. In fact, recent studies in France and Spain confirm that shifting to greener modes of transportation will benefit employment. A 2010 study of the “Ile de France” considered two alternative scenarios for CO2 emissions reductions. The first projected a slight increase in car traffic and a 13 per cent increase in transit traffic volume.
The second assumed a reduction in traffic of 10 per cent and an increase in public transport of 35 per cent. Under the first scenario, about 33,000 direct and indirect transportation jobs would be created and 3,000 jobs lost in the motor vehicle sector. Under the second scenario, 58,000 new jobs would be created and fewer than 8,000 jobs lost in the sector.
The key challenge for the transport sector is to accelerate the transition towards becoming a sector that is characterized by lower emissions. Bringing about much-needed changes in the transportation sector will require a range of policies. These include mandatory fuel-efficiency requirements, carbon-cap and trade regimes, Government support for green innovation and subsidies or procurement programmes. Governments must also enhance investment in inter-city and urban transportation alternatives, including vehicles and infrastructure. Changes in land use policies are often essential to make public transportation options more feasible.
As ground transportation accounts for approximately 77 per cent of the sector’s CO2 emissions, taking steps to make motor vehicles far more fuel-efficient or running them on alternative forms of energy is central to the strategy of greening the sector. Greater fuel efficiency and hybrid/electric propulsion systems require that new efficient technologies and equipment, such as batteries and light-weight materials, be developed and incorporated into vehicles, which has the additional benefit of stimulating employment creation. Jobs gains arise from modifying engines and retrofitting vehicles, producing CNG conversion kits and developing a CNG delivery infrastructure.
Striking a better balance among transport modes requires greater investment in public transportation systems, ranging from inter-city trains to trams, underground trains and buses. Although the number of jobs in manufacturing such vehicles is relatively limited, compared with those in car and truck manufacturing, operating these systems offers large-scale employment opportunities and evidence from around the world suggests that jobs in this field are increasing.
Skills upgrading and retraining efforts must be part of any transition. Shifting vehicle manufacturing towards greater reliance on hybrid and electric vehicles requires an updating of skills in the industry’s workforce, though not on an unmanageable scale. Likewise, producing flex-fuel vehicles that can run on natural gas or biofuels does not imply any large-scale alterations to the industry’s skill profiles.
Many industrialized countries can provide evidence of policies that are moving in the right direction, but a key challenge will lie in reinforcing certain trends, such as continuing the shift towards greater fuel efficiency in individual vehicles and increased emphasis on public transport systems. Developing countries, meanwhile, still have an opportunity to leapfrog developed countries in a number of instances to more sustainable transport systems.
More broadly, an affordable, green and efficient transportation sector will provide people with better access to jobs and allow them to be more productive, while also freeing resources for other purposes.
In particular, reliable and affordable transport is essential in gaining access to jobs, and thus for a flourishing economy and for human development more broadly. Poorly planned or designed transport systems and unnecessary urban sprawl can make access to jobs physically difficult and costly, especially for low-income households, who must allocate a larger share of their meagre incomes to cover transport expenses.
UN HABITAT notes that about 80 per cent of Africa’s urban dwellers “do not have access to personal vehicles and a large proportion does not even have any access to motorized transit services”. The rise of the private informal transport sector, including unlicensed minibuses or motorcycle taxis, is closely related to the failure and demise of many formal public transport systems.
 © ILO Photo/K. Cassidy |
The shift away from heavy reliance on private cars towards lower-carbon urban public transport alternatives is likely to yield gains in other areas, such as passenger transport, freight transport and transportation services. In fact, recent studies in France and Spain confirm that shifting to greener modes of transportation will benefit employment. A 2010 study of the “Ile de France” considered two alternative scenarios for CO2 emissions reductions. The first projected a slight increase in car traffic and a 13 per cent increase in transit traffic volume.
The second assumed a reduction in traffic of 10 per cent and an increase in public transport of 35 per cent. Under the first scenario, about 33,000 direct and indirect transportation jobs would be created and 3,000 jobs lost in the motor vehicle sector. Under the second scenario, 58,000 new jobs would be created and fewer than 8,000 jobs lost in the sector.
The key challenge for the transport sector is to accelerate the transition towards becoming a sector that is characterized by lower emissions. Bringing about much-needed changes in the transportation sector will require a range of policies. These include mandatory fuel-efficiency requirements, carbon-cap and trade regimes, Government support for green innovation and subsidies or procurement programmes. Governments must also enhance investment in inter-city and urban transportation alternatives, including vehicles and infrastructure. Changes in land use policies are often essential to make public transportation options more feasible.
As ground transportation accounts for approximately 77 per cent of the sector’s CO2 emissions, taking steps to make motor vehicles far more fuel-efficient or running them on alternative forms of energy is central to the strategy of greening the sector. Greater fuel efficiency and hybrid/electric propulsion systems require that new efficient technologies and equipment, such as batteries and light-weight materials, be developed and incorporated into vehicles, which has the additional benefit of stimulating employment creation. Jobs gains arise from modifying engines and retrofitting vehicles, producing CNG conversion kits and developing a CNG delivery infrastructure.
Striking a better balance among transport modes requires greater investment in public transportation systems, ranging from inter-city trains to trams, underground trains and buses. Although the number of jobs in manufacturing such vehicles is relatively limited, compared with those in car and truck manufacturing, operating these systems offers large-scale employment opportunities and evidence from around the world suggests that jobs in this field are increasing.
Skills upgrading and retraining efforts must be part of any transition. Shifting vehicle manufacturing towards greater reliance on hybrid and electric vehicles requires an updating of skills in the industry’s workforce, though not on an unmanageable scale. Likewise, producing flex-fuel vehicles that can run on natural gas or biofuels does not imply any large-scale alterations to the industry’s skill profiles.
Many industrialized countries can provide evidence of policies that are moving in the right direction, but a key challenge will lie in reinforcing certain trends, such as continuing the shift towards greater fuel efficiency in individual vehicles and increased emphasis on public transport systems. Developing countries, meanwhile, still have an opportunity to leapfrog developed countries in a number of instances to more sustainable transport systems.
More broadly, an affordable, green and efficient transportation sector will provide people with better access to jobs and allow them to be more productive, while also freeing resources for other purposes.