New initiatives for carbon reduction

Mumbai will soon tread on a new city-wide low-carbon transport path that will facilitate it to avail of current carbon financing schemes. During a two day workshop organised by the Paris based Institute Veolia Environment (IVE) in Mumbai in September, international transport experts and regional authorities discussed how international investment could be harnessed to support the delivery of a city wide low carbon transport system. During the workshop, “Future of carbon schemes for sustainable transport: Mumbai paves the way”, organisations like The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), IVE, Veolia Transport, TRL (London) and IDDRI (Paris) jointly launched a project to target carbon reduction by shifting from individual transport projects to city level initiatives.

A methodology will be established to reverse the current bias towards roads and ensure that carbon costs are considered in all transport decisions.

Currently, Mumbai – as many other cities in the world – suffers from a high level of congestion, increasing air pollution and accidents caused by a rapid growth in car ownership. To address these problems, the city authorities are seeking more sustainable transport alternatives as exemplified by the Mumbai metro.

International funding could become an important source of funding for transport infrastructure projects. There is an increasing attention from institutions like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to support non-motorised and public transport alternatives.

The workshop findings will support Mumbai to become a forerunner in the area of climate finance and to receive international recognition. International funding for transport projects has largely focused on physical infrastructure like roads, flyovers, parking places, etc. even transport projects that lead to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions have found it difficult to secure financial support from global mechanisms like the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) which fund projects that help to reduce CO2. As of now, of the 2270 projects that have received funding from the CDM, there are only three transport projects.