The World Bank and WRI Center for Transport and the Environment (EMBARQ) and hosting Transforming Transportation: Hitting the Road, to be held Thursday January 15, 2004 at WRI and Friday January 16, 2004 at the World Bank. The two-day event will feature round table discussions of actual government and private decision makers in developing countries; World Bank project managers and specialists; manufacturers of fuels, vehicles, and related equipment; and NGOs. The first day will be a discussion of clean air, fuel, and sustainable transport policy solutions, and the second will be an evaluation of implemented policies and regulations in developing country cities and the response of different sectors and target groups to these policies and regulations.
The objective of this round table is a discussion of issues challenging (some would say plaguing) both architects and planners of cleaner air and sustainable transport everywhere... [Read More]
Background
As discussed in the Mobile Source Handbook a number of compounding factors affect emission levels, and there is no policy or regulation that target all of these factors at once: new and in-use vehicle technologies, fuel quality, intensity of vehicle use, driving and traffic characteristics, and maintenance levels. Also, decision making in the transport sector is fragmented and overlapping institutional responsibilities among agencies at the federal, provincial or state and municipal levels result in lack of coordination and inconsistencies. At the same time, policies in various other sectors, especially energy, have close linkages with the effectiveness of environmental policies and should be coordinated and harmonized.
Objective
The objectiveof Day 2 is to discuss the effectiveness of implemented policies andregulations for air quality improvements related to transport in developing countrycities. Alloverthedevelopingworld,manycities and national governmentshaveadopted regulationsandstandards to reduce emissions from mobilesources,butthe effectivenessandsuccess of policies and emission standards in reducing urban air pollution has been varied. The discussion on Day 2will revolve around themes outlined in the Bank's ongoing work on a handbook foraddressingairpollutionfrom mobile sources ("Mobile Source Handbook"), that is being prepared by the Bank's Air Quality Thematic Group.
Format
Abriefdescriptionofthe Handbook, its objectives, and primary conclusions will be presentedbytheWorldBank,followed by discussion along the key themes. These key themes will build directly on the topics discussed on Day 1, andwilladdressthe fundamentalquestionof the conditions for successful implementationoftheair quality options in developing countries, including cost, technical maturity and availability, institutional demands, regulatory and policy requirements, and other issues.Formal presentations will be limited and opendiscussionwillbe encouraged.Especially welcome, will be opinions and concerns of practicioners and decision-makers from developing countries.
Target Group
Decisionmakers that fall into three groups: actual government and private decision makers in developing countries; World Bank project managers and specialists; and manufacturers of fuels, vehicles, and related equipment.
For further information please contact Paul Procee at [email protected].
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