How serious are countries about decarbonising transport?

Lorry and sun

New “Transport NDC Tracker” monitors how transport appears in national decarbonisation commitments

The new “Transport NDC Tracker” launched on 28 September by the International Transport Forum at the OECD monitors how transport appears in the decarbonisation commitments of the countries that have joined the Paris Climate Agreement.

The Transport NDC Tracker keeps tabs on whether the “Nationally Determined Contributions” (NDCs), as the decarbonisation plans that countries submit under the Paris Agreement are known,

  • mention transport;
  • include transport decarbonisation measures;
  • set transport CO2-reduction targets.

The tracker is updated every Monday to take into account new NDC submissions to the UNFCCC. Based on the data available on 27 September 2021,

  • 94% of countries refer to transport in some way in their NDCs;
  • 77% of countries have included transport measures in their NDCs;
  • 14% set concrete targets for the reduction of transport CO2.

The Transport NDC Tracker aims to highlight the critical importance of transport for climate policy by making transparent countries’ transport decarbonisation ambitions in the run-up to the UN climate negotiations at COP26 in November in Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Climate change cannot be stopped without decarbonising transport. Transport is more than 90% reliant on fossil fuels and is responsible for around a quarter of global energy-related CO2 emissions. In contrast to other sectors, transport CO2 emissions continue to rise, not fall.

Signatories of the Paris Agreement are required to submit new, increasingly ambitious NDCs every five years. Following the first round in 2015, the second NDCs are due for the COP26, after a delay caused by the pandemic.

The Transport NDC Tracker is available in Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

Check out the Transport NDC Tracker here: www.itf-oecd.org/ndc-tracker/en