Sustainable systems promoted in EBRD’s new Transport Strategy

A new Transport Sector Strategy has been approved for the five years 2019-2024, by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

This new strategy refines the previous period’s strategy to work on the emerging global green economy and climate targets in a sector that, while slow to change, is a catalyst for economic and inclusive growth, EBRD said.

Since the previous strategy came into force, global policymakers have made headway with climate action targets arising from the 2015 Paris Agreement to keep greenhouse gas emissions low. The EBRD has said the new strategy takes into account global policy developments and formalises its interest in emerging technical trends from alternative fuels to automation and digital solutions.

The strategy also covers the bank’s operations in the transport sector across all transport modes, with the aim of supporting the development of sustainable and well-connected transport systems responsive to the needs of people, industry and trade. 

The EBRD has further stated that the strategy sees transport demand as strongly linked to GDP and population growth and thus the demand for individual mobility and trade in the bank’s region will continue to expand.

However, the ability of economies across the region to satisfy this demand in a sustainable manner is constrained by a widening investment gap, weak governance, inefficiency, poor connectivity, low inter-modality, inadequately maintained assets, limited private sector participation and low take-up of new technology and innovative solutions. 

The strategy acknowledges that the sustainability of the transport sector can be enhanced by increased private sector participation, the EBRD continued, including public-private partnerships and through the mobilisation of diversified sources of finance and blended structures. 

Sustainable transport systems need to address the challenge of embodying market principles while balancing economic, environmental and social needs, and achieving this balance is at the core of the Transport Sector Strategy, the bank said. 

By responding to this challenge, the Transport Sector Strategy will contribute towards multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals including those relating to economic growth, the environment, climate change, gender, and equality.