Moving Toward Sustainable Transport with EVs, Green Fuels and Mass Transit

The SuM4All Global Mobility Report 2022 takes a close look at global transport‘s sustainability as measured by four key goals: universal access, efficiency, safety, and green mobility. The report looks at all forms of motorized transport, from road, to air, to waterborne, to rail. From providing safe and affordable sustainable transport for all, to addressing not only emissions but also noise, efficiency, and air pollution, the report takes a broad look at the challenges and opportunities facing governments, businesses, and planners as they move toward greener forms of movement.  

The last SuM4All Global Mobility Report, published in 2017, found that the transport sector contributes 23 percent of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions and 18 percent of all man-made emissions. The 2022 report examines successes and struggles in the five years between SuM4All reports.   

Carolina Monsalve is a Lead Economist and Program Manager in the Transport Global Practice at the World Bank Group. She has extensive experience leading policy and analytical activities with a special focus on green transport. 

Question: Thank you for talking to me about sustainable transport around the world. What are some of the major trends you’ve seen in the five years between these two reports? 

If we look strictly at the indicators tracked by the Global Mobility Report, we don’t have a straightforward story of improvement. We see some gains made with respect to rural and urban rapid transit access, and no obvious gains for some of the other indicators. But I would say that the indicators themselves tell only part of the story—there are some very positive developments in transport over the last five years.  

On the green mobility side, for example, electric vehicle sales hit an all-time high in 2022. During the COVID pandemic, teleworking cut down on avoidable trips like long commutes. And a number of cities opened up street lanes for bikes, freeing up space for pedestrians to move more safely, and this, in turn, reduced the number of vehicles and air pollution in neighborhoods. However, pandemic safety concerns meant a large drop in public transit ridership and major supply chain problems, which slowed some infrastructure and building projects. The pandemic, coming right in between the two Global Mobility Reports, has made things more complicated, but there are many positive signs on the green transition for transport.  

Q: What will it take to really move forward on sustainability?

Leadership is critical, but in addition to investment, policies and regulations are key, and they’re too often under-emphasized. To give a concrete example, it’s great to develop a mass transit system, but you still have to get people out of cars and on the bus, subway, train, or bike. To do that, you need the right policies to disincentivize the use of cars, policies like fuel taxes, vehicle emission standards, parking policies and, in some cases, tolls. And let’s not forget pricing. London has the Congestion Charge Zone, which is well known, but years ago the city of Santiago, Chile, introduced a network of electronic highway tolls. Price is a very powerful tool that impacts and even changes behavior. In cities we need to work closely with local and national governments to create a framework that supports public transit and active mobility like biking and walking, while creating disincentives for car use. 

Q: Has e-mobility had an impact on the sustainability of transport? What about in the developing world? 

Most of the world’s 6.6 million EV sales in 2021 were concentrated in major global markets such as China, Europe, and the United States. The reason is simple: cost. Electric vehicles come at a premium, which creates a financial hurdle for many potential buyers in developing countries. 

The U.S. and China have focused on the adoption of EV cars, but in India two-wheel vehicles such as scooters, mopeds, and motorbikes dominate the market and are in higher demand than electric passenger cars.  India’s success with two- and three-wheeled vehicles could be a template for other developing countries.  Electric buses, which carry lots of passengers over long distances, are another promising option for developing counties. There are many grounds for optimism, we’re on the cusp of major uptake of EVs in developing countries. 

Of course, EVs alone can’t solve all transport challenges in developing countries. They need to be part of a broader plan toward sustainable mobility.  

Q: Obviously, cutting transport’s greenhouse gas emissions is key, but is there anything else that needs addressing in order to shift toward sustainability? 

Transport needs to deliver mobility and connectivity to move people and goods, while doing so with the lowest possible carbon footprint. This is at the core of the Sustainable Mobility for All Partnership. In road transport, which is the highest source of emissions from the transport sector, we need to deliver mobility with fewer GHG emissions, while improving safety and connecting people to jobs and economic opportunities.  

To make this happen, we need to focus on three keywords: Avoid-Shift-Improve. “Avoid” refers to reducing motorized transport as much as possible by eliminating, shortening, and reducing the frequency of trips for both passengers and goods. “Shift” refers to moving from more energy-intensive transport to cleaner movement, while “improve” refers to cutting emissions with more efficient technologies like EVs. And one more thing-- we have to add “resilient” to the Avoid-Shift-Improve paradigm. “Resilient” refers to extreme weather with an increased focus on making infrastructure and transport services hold up better in a changing climate.

Q: What’s next in the push for green mobility? 

There is no magic formula or silver bullet.  Passenger cars and medium and heavy trucks account for over 60 percent of transport’s GHG emissions. Strong regulations, fiscal incentives, and investment in infrastructure that supports zero-emission and low-carbon vehicles are vital. We have to work on efficient technologies for cars and trucks, first by bringing such technologies to market and then scaling them up. In cities, public transport and promoting active mobility are both critical. 

Fuel taxes need to reflect the societal and environmental impacts of internal combustion engine vehicles. Taxes, together with stringent vehicle emission standards, can help countries transition to cleaner combustion engines. Pricing is a very powerful lever to influence behavior, but also one that is politically and socially very sensitive. 

For aviation and shipping, greener fuels like sustainable aviation fuels and maritime use of ammonia and hydrogen and biofuels are promising. There’s a lot of work and innovation happening right now in making flying and shipping more sustainable, but there is also much catching up to do.

So, while we still have a long road ahead of us, there are plenty of positive signs. According to a 2021 report by the EIA, the size of the global conventional vehicle fleet will peak by 2038.  This is a big step. People in developed countries are buying more EVs, and some big countries, like India, are moving toward electric two and three wheelers.

If we sit down together in a decade, we would be in a different space and we would be talking about successes and about the green transition in the trucking sector, and other, harder to tackle sectors, such as aviation and maritime transport.