This section examines how a green transport sector can lead to green economic growth, create jobs and reduce poverty.
3.1 Supporting green growth
Investment in transport is often justified on the grounds that the movement of goods, services and workers is the vital fuel of the economic engine. Freight transport volumes have traditionally been thought to strongly correlate with economic growth on the supply side and passenger car use to be driven by economic growth on the demand side. There is evidence, however, to suggest that high levels of GDP can be accompanied by transportation systems that rely less on the private car, as may be seen in Figure 5.
This figure shows that cities and regions can significantly decouple car use – and the associated environmental pressures – from economic growth. In a green economy, mobility needs would be reduced through better city
100
design and planning and impacts would be decoupled from growth through providing high quality, low carbon transport, especially through public transport, NMT infrastructure and cleaner, more efficient vehicles. For individuals, the lower levels of congestion and reduced travel time would leave more time for productive activities, especially if there is access to more frequent, reliable and affordable public transport services. By reducing fuel use and transport time, companies can be more competitive and profitable. McKinnon (2008) and UNEP (2008c) show that measures designed to improve the efficiency of freight transport reduce operational costs in addition to delivering carbon savings.
Of the various channels through which investment can flow into green transport, investment in infrastructure offers the greatest potential for economic growth by encouraging government investment and stimulating new business opportunities. Investment in green transport technology is also likely to benefit the overall economy, particularly through its potential to stimulate government investment (see Table 3).
Riyadh
Perth Calgary
Brisbane 80 Kuala Lumpur 60
Tehran MexicoCity
40 Casablanca 20 Cairo
Ho Chi Minh City Cape Town
Curitiba Abidjan
Salvador Seoul
BogotaSao Paulo Moscow Johannesburg
Manilla Beijing
Harare Dakar Chennai Mumbai Shanghai 0 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,00 50,000 60,000 GDP per capita (US$)
Figure 5: Moving towards a green trajectory Source: UITP database (2005)
Jakarta Warsaw
Tunis Cracow
Guangzhou Budapest
Buemos Aires Prague
Tel Aviv Montreal Wellington
Athens Lille Taipei
Manchester Glasgow
Newcastle Barcelona Fio de Janeiro Madrid Hong Kong Amsterdam Turin
London Berlin
Rome Bologne Milan Singapore Marseille Brussels Nantes Stockholm Ruhr Graz Sapporo
Copenhagen Lyon Stuttgart Paris
Hamburg Oslo
Vienna Osaka
Geneva Düsseldorf Berne Tokyo Most efficient pattern