Background
The United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) organized the Expert Group Meeting on Sustainable Transport in Geneva, Switzerland, from 22 to 23 November 2023, followed by the World Sustainable Transport Day celebrations on 24 November.
The Expert Group Meeting was attended by over 40 invited experts, senior officials, representatives of civil society and private sector organizations, academia, as well as government experts from Brazil, China, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom. From the UN system, all regional commissions (ECE, ESCAP, ECA, ESCWA, and ECLAC), as well as WHO, ILO, ICAO, UNCTAD and UN-Habitat were actively involved.
The Expert Group Meeting aimed at taking stock of the outcomes of the 2023 SDG Summit and the Second United Nations Global Sustainable Transport Conference, and it was an opportunity to commemorate the first World Sustainable Transport Day and to consider how the United Nations system and other stakeholders can best utilize the day to raise awareness on the importance of sustainable transport and increase knowledge of sustainable transport solutions around the world.
The Expert Group Meeting was also an opportunity to substantively prepare for the High-level Meeting on Sustainable Transport of the President of the General Assembly to be held on 17 April 2023 and to consider practical ways in which the upcoming UN Decade of Sustainable Transport 2026-2035 can accelerate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goas and contribute to sustainable development globally. The meeting resulted in a number of practical recommendations from the experts, as summarized by the Secretariat.
Announcements
- ESCAP: World Sustainable Transport Day 2023 website: https://www.unescap.org/events/2023/world-sustainable-transport-day-2023#:~:text=ESCAP%20is%20commemorating%20November%2026,public%20on%20sustainable%20transport%20issues
- ESCWA: Parliamentary document on “Transport in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: transport and the Sustainable Development Goals”, presented in Arabic at the 17th session of ESCWA Committee on Transport and Logistics (Cairo, 23–24 January 2017).
- ESCWA: Report on “Land electric mobility in the Arab region: options and opportunities”, published in December 2022.
- ESCWA: Parliamentary document on “Sustainable transport development in the Arab countries”, presented at the 24th session of ESCWA committee on Transport and Logistics, held in Cairo on 10 and 11 January 2024.
- UNCTAD: Transport, logistics and trade facilitation (https://unctad.org/topic/transport-and-trade-logistics)
- UNCTAD: SDG Pulse (https://sdgpulse.unctad.org/sustainable-transport/)
- UNCTAD: Transport and trade connectivity in the age of pandemics (https://unttc.org/)
