Thank you for joining us for Day 1. Here is a summary of the day's highlights

Opening Session

In the opening session, a high level panel of transport thought leaders, government policy makers, and leaders of international development organizations discussed two topics, the future of transport and their views on how the sector would be changing, and the goal to decarbonize the transport sector, and how this major transformation would be accomplished.

•    Woochong Um gave the opening remarks, and spoke on how the need to respond to the changing transport needs exposed by the pandemic, and the need for the transport sector to attain its related Sustainable Development Goals targets and align with the Paris Agreement are not mutually exclusive, and that responding to both can stimulate a drastic shift and transformation of transport.


•    Ken O’Flaherty spoke on the Government of the UK’s decarbonization efforts, and how theirinput to COP26 centered around this, and their target for net zero emissions by 2050, which is led by a push for zero emission vehicles.

•    Young Tae Kim shared his view that studies, gathering and sharing knowledge, and targeted analytical assistance is what helps countries identify their priority policies for transport, and turns these plans into reality. He stated that decarbonization efforts will need well defined governance systems and clear and quantifiable impacts to create and sustain the transformational momentum.



•    Xiaohong Yang spoke on the role of ADB and partner MDBs in supporting transport transformation among developing countries with a widening infrastructure gap, especially due to limited fiscal space due to COVID, and the need to build back better and build back greener. She noted that MDBs have tools like project-based and results-based loans as part of a greater toolkit of innovative financing that can help fund truly transformational projects in the COVID-era.

•    Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan offered a perspective from Pakistan, where despite multiple challenges of access and finance, the country’s ambitions are to expand its use of electric vehicles, and the countries NDCs are ambitious, though balanced against basic transport needs for much of the populace.

•    Ricardo Menéndez March, of the New Zealand parliament, spoke on transport as an inclusive issue, and how enabling access to affordable public transport had transformed communities. He balanced this by noting that transport was New Zealand’s fastest growing source of emissions, and stated that alternatives to car-focused infrastructure is a necessary priority.

•    Jaehak Oh focused on technological advances particularly for solving the externalities such as emissions, but also stated the need for a  market based ecology and a people’s consensus for transforming transportation. He noted that South Korea’s large automobile industry is both a barrier and opportunity for increasing the use of EVs.

Discussions in this session revolved around the key barriers and entry points to shift beyond existing approaches and towards the design of low or net-zero transport solutions that can meet the urgent ambitions of decarbonizing development, especially in light of the recently released IPCC's latest report and the urgent scenarios described there.

Noelle O’brien as moderator, gave introductory remarks and stressed that there will be some transport sub-sectors that are going to be challenging to decarbonize. These include road freight, maritime and aviation. There is growing body research & development in alternative fuels and energy transformations, but these will take some time. But in the meantime, the social and technological changes of recent years have brought new opportunities to enable low carbon pathways.

There is a positive outlook in Asia where high income countries has shown an absolute decoupling between emissions and economic growth, and lower income countries are showing a relative decoupling. Although this demonstrates the possibility of further decoupling in future, further rapid action is required.

Speakers weighed in on a number of topics related to decarbonization, from projects to industry priorities to technological solutions.   

•    Yidan Luo spoke on a number of successful projects in SouthEast Asia to promote public transport, support railway development and upgrade para-transit options to more sustainable modes. She noted that that transport cannot decarbonize on its own, transport-energy nexus solutions and collaborative efforts with energy sector are increasingly important.

•    Lynn Loo noted that while maritime cargo has a relatively lower share of global emissions, the sector is difficult to abate, but is taking action to lower emissions and that their long term solution is to look towards zero carbon fuels. In terms of support from development organizations, she noted that commercial banks are very conservative in terms of green lending for maritime, and that unlocking that financing with help from the development sector, governments, and the philanthropic sector would help lower overall risks.

•    Edward Clayton spoke on the aviation sector and noted that aviation is currently undergoing a difficult recovery from COVID, where passenger numbers in EU have actually gone back to 2019 levels and the industry has been unable to cope with this surge. In terms of decarbonizing the sector, the industry is always looking to minimize pollution, and maximize sustainability. He offered advice for ADB that they can assist regional airlines in retiring older aircraft and improving efficiencies in systems and controls which reduces flight times and emissions of ground operations.

•    Responding to a question from the audience, Jürg Grütter spoke on decarbonizing urban freight transport and the possibility of exploring alternative business models in ownership structures, leasing models and operating schemes for e-vehicles to support urban freight couriers. Alternatively for long haul freight, he noted that there are low carbon alternatives that are currently available, such as green hydrogen. At the same time, it will be crucial to increase the share of rail and domestic inland shipping which have lower emissions than road freight.

•    Urda Eichhorst spoke on how countries have already made their ambitions for transformational change clear through their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) but need vast support to accomplish these, through technical assistance and other avenues of support. She also noted the need for ADB and its development partners to get involved much earlier at the level of the planning ministries for transport, energy and the economy, and by becoming involved in the upstream of projects, development outcomes can be maximized.