Sustainable mobility: Why it offers compelling answers to climate change

Having been a resident of Delhi for several years, it’s quite disconcerting to see how climate change has affected the city. The seasons are only getting more extreme — summers peppered with heatwaves and harsh winters that make you quiver. However, the story remains the same across urban centers globally, where freak weather events and extreme temperatures are taking a toll on human lives. According to the scientists of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the US Department of Commerce, 2020 was ranked as the second-hottest year on the planet, knocking 2019 down to being the third hottest. The decade between 2010 and 2020 is considered the hottest decade on the planet ever.

At a time when people and goods are moving in unprecedented volume across the world, one of the most complex challenges of our time is figuring out ways to decrease the environmental impact of transport. According to the IEA, transport sector emissions are projected to rise by nearly 75% worldwide — a statistic causing concern, considering that the number of vehicles on the road is expected to double by 2050. It is estimated that by 2030, passenger traffic will exceed 80,000 billion passenger kilometers while freight volume will grow 70% globally. These projections may exceed exponentially as economies — especially those of India, China, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia — chase fast-paced growth. The billions of inhabitants of these regions have new mobility aspirations to match their improving lifestyles, hence governments have prioritized mega-mobility projects that connect them more efficiently. But what does this mean for our planet?

To answer that question, we must examine if we have a long-term perspective that prioritizes sustainability while building for growth. Maritime links, roads, and airports will cease to matter if the world doesn’t work together to reduce the environmental impact of transportation. Although over the past few years, the international community has made promises of sustainable mobility — it’s now imperative that sustainable transport underpins urbanization.

What’s encouraging to see is that our country is also taking steps towards greener transport. In line with Sustainable Development Goal 13, which aims to take positive action against climate change, India is also ensuring that its development agenda has a component of sustainability and environmental preservation. For example, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her speech for Union Budget 2022, mentioned that green transport like ropeways will be built in hill stations under the ‘Parvat Mala’ initiative. Metro systems in major cities have also contributed to a reduction in air pollution. Delhi Metro has been certified by the United Nations as the first Metro Rail in the world to get carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as it helped reduce pollution levels in the capital city by 6.3 lakh tons every year, thus having a direct measurable impact on global warming.

As a leading technology consultant, for decades RITES has been involved in the planning of both metro and ropeway systems, the sustainable public transport modes.

However, to address climate change in a more comprehensive way, we need a clear set of guiding principles for green mobility. We need all stakeholders — the government, PSUs, private agencies, banks, the manufacturing industry, and civil society organizations — to work together to devise and enforce these principles. Such an integrated approach will not only allow the optimization of benefits but also lead the country to achieve our Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) faster. Experts in the field of transport infrastructure have already started advocating a sustainable and low-carbon approach to shape mobility and strengthen last-mile connectivity.

In my opinion, the first and foremost change that we need to bring about in our infrastructure planning is to shift the focus onto sustainability, right from concept to commissioning.

As our rules mandate the economic evaluation of infrastructure projects before construction, with a focus on benefits to society, the economic evaluation needs to ensure that sustainability remains at its core. Prioritizing sustainability in an economic evaluation of transport projects can transform project design. It can be more inclusive, by being centered around what’s great for the environment, pedestrians, and non-motorized transport (NMT). Green construction can be very beneficial to every citizen, by preserving trees, ensuring afforestation, and allowing human beings to remain in touch with nature. Creating a park as big as an acre at every major construction site may approximately cost Rs 3 crore, a small price to pay considering the huge costs incurred in urban infrastructure projects. We urgently need to strike a balance between growth and sustainability.

Technology will also determine the future of mobility. Technological advancement in automation and the ‘Internet of Things’ hold great promise for green transport. For example, using data from Internet of Things-enabled infrastructure can help planners to add capacity and improve reliability so that high-quality mass transport, and mass-rapid transport systems, are preferred by citizens over private vehicles. App-based mobility services have already prompted many to move away from vehicle ownership in favor of shared mobility or ‘mobility as a service’. Electric vehicles are also becoming an aspirational asset, for example, a driver of an electric car can save about 1 tons of CO2 over a period of one year as compared to a vehicle powered by gasoline.

Another area that planners can look at is multimodal transport hubs or mobility hubs, as they’re known in the West. A dated concept, however, it has been gaining ground over the past few years among local and national governments as they could solve a host of problems with a single solution. By providing a dedicated location where a selection of sustainable transport modes is co-located in proximity, it provides a push to make sustainable choices — instead of just dedicating an area to support the sustainable choices already made by citizens like a place to park a bike or rent an electric car.

Lastly, sustainable urban mobility doesn’t only need to be a part of Smart City Project planning. Learning from our mistakes in big/mega cities and advance planning in Tier I, II, and III cities can address the need for urgent improvement of air quality, realizing seamless inter-modal mobility, and using renewable energy to power transport.

It’s, therefore, clear that transport is a big part of the conversation around SDG realisation. Every stakeholder can bring their unique perspective and expertise to change the future of transport for the better. Sustainable mobility can save our planet and our cities if we only hasten the pace of movement in the right direction.

The author is General Manager, Urban Infrastructure & Sustainability, RITES Ltd. Views expressed are personal.

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