Global co-operation is key to sustainable mobility
July 5, 2004
Global co-operation to limit the adverse social and environmental impacts of motor vehicles, complemented by further technology advances, is needed to fulfil transport's vital role in the development of modern society, states a newly released report.
Mobility 2030: Meeting the Challenges to Sustainability, a report developed by 12 global automotive and energy companies under the sponsorship of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), defines sustainable mobility as "the ability to meet the needs of society to move freely, gain access, communicate, trade and establish relationships without sacrificing other essential human or ecological values today or in the future."
According to the report, if current mobility trends were to continue, social, economic and environmental costs worldwide would be unacceptably high.
However, those costs can be avoided if society as a whole focuses on the achievement of seven goals set out in the report.
The report's seven goals include: ensuring conventional emissions from transport are not a significant health concern anywhere; limiting greenhouse gas emissions from transport to sustainable levels; significantly reducing traffic-related deaths and serious injuries worldwide; reducing transport-related noise; mitigating traffic congestion; narrowing the divide in mobility opportunities that exists between and within different societies and regions of the world; and preserving and improving existing mobility opportunities.
"The key to sustainable mobility on a global basis will be achieving it in the developing world. Fundamental to achieving this is the need to narrow the mobility opportunity divides that exist within countries as well as between the world's poorest countries and the developed world," highlighted Dr. Shoichiro Toyoda, Honorary Chairman of Toyota, and also a project co-chair.
The report conceded that it was still likely to be much later than 2030 before cars stopped being big producers of greenhouse gases.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development website has further information.
Print this page