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Work with cities to accelerate climate action: invest in public transport

“We need to increase investment in public transport if we’re going to stop the climate crisis.”

The Future Is Public Transport Coalition

Download the links below to read the full statement (PDF)

We, a coalition of the world’s largest city-alliances, international climate initiatives, transport authorities and operators, supply-chain businesses, trade unions, non-governmental organisations, healthcare professionals and citizen groups, urge world leaders to prioritise investment in public transport and double its use in cities by 2030.

There’s no silver bullet to solve the climate crisis, but doubling public transport is one of the most cost-effective actions that we can take to reduce climate emissions, creating green jobs and inclusive opportunities, and improving the livelihoods of everyone in cities.

The time to take action is NOW.

Joint statement call on world leaders to ensure that:

Increasing the public transport mode share is made a key goal in climate plans and Nationally Determined Contributions
Investment in the improvement, expansion and electrification of formal and informal public transport is made a priority. Over the next decade, 208 billion USD a year is needed to improve, expand and electrify public transport to reach 1.5 degree goals in C40 cities (C40 Cities, 2021)
Everyone living in urban areas has safe, frequent, affordable and accessible public transport within an equally-accessible 10 minute walk from their home

Join us and help amplifying our voices by sharing our 2023 coalition statement along with the hashtag #TheFutureisPublicTransport and statement banners on social media.

Download the media kit

Together, we can build a green and just transition and transform our cities into places of opportunity for everyone.

Invest in public transit. Invest in our future. World leaders: Act now.

Read our previous campaign coalition statement here

U20 co-chair: “G20 members have the opportunity to lead by example”

https://www.globalgovernanceproject.org/urban-solutions/

SuM4All. How to unlock public transport for climate. Six areas for action

https://www.sum4all.org/data/files/how_to_unlock_public_transport_for_climate_and_sustainable_development-six_areas_for_action.pdf

Infographic: public transport health benefits

Download and share this infographic to make the case on why public transport is a key public health solution.

Download

Infographic: the economic benefits of public transport

Download and share this infographic to make the case for why public transport is a key economic solution.

Download

A Just Transition for Urban Transport Workers Report

https://www.itfglobal.org/en/resources/just-transition-urban-transport-workers-0

The Future is Youth Activism. A conversation with youth activists on public transport

The Future is Public Transport and Buenos Aires City Hall brought together 60 youth climate activists for a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of Buenos Aires at the 2022 C40 World Mayors Summit.

The tour, spanning across city’s ecological reserve and housing renovation project, highlighted how public transport plays an integral role in connecting residents to green spaces within the city.

Buenos Aires itself is on track to achieve a 50% emissions reduction by 2030, with a bus fleet expansion programme lying at the heart of this target.

Representatives from the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) discussed with youth activists how public transport can create sustainable jobs, promote equity, and ensure safe mobility for all.

By bringing public transport to the forefront of the youth climate agenda, activists will continue to call on national governments to implement measures to build sustainable cities.

London

(last update: Jan 2023)

London has shown how to combine car use reduction policies with investment in public transport and green infrastructure to support London’s ambitious goal to ensure 80% of all journeys in London are to be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport by 2041.

London has placed a clear focus on reducing air pollution to improve the health of its citizens.

Air quality and health

London sets a great example for addressing air pollution and therefore reducing the health impacts on the citizens living in the city. The city introduced the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone in 2019 which has contributed to a nearly halving of city centre air pollution, and in 2021 was expanded to 18 times the original area. Now encompassing 3.8 million Londoners, the expansion, combined with stronger emissions standards for buses and heavy goods vehicles, has reduced harmful NO2 concentrations by 20% inside the zone. In London in 2016 thousands of Londoners were dying prematurely every year due to exposure to air pollution. The Ultra Low Emission Zone meant that by 2019 the exposure to air pollution had been reduced by 94 percent within the zone.

Reduction in car use

In combination with the Ultra Low Emission Zone, the city will ensure 80% of all journeys in London are to be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport by 2041, through a combination of modernising existing services and providing new ones. This goal is being put into action by a strategy to expand and enhance existing public transport infrastructure. The combination of Ultra Low Emission Zones with the convenient and reliable transport options will maintain a thriving city with a reduced reliance on cars. Active, efficient and sustainable mode share for 2019 was estimated to be 63.2 percent, a 0.2 percentage point increase over 2018, and 3.6 percentage points higher than 2010. The city has estimated that the mode shift observed in recent years has resulted in 2.9 million fewer car trips per day, in 2018 compared to the period since 2000.

Investment in infrastructure

Large-scale investment has been made with more planned, to make London’s streets more attractive for walking and cycling over the long term. Over 100km of new or upgraded cycle routes have been delivered or begun construction since early 2019 meaning that now one in five Londoners now live near the cycle network, a 10% increase on 2019.

The newly opened Elizabeth line provides a step change in public transport connectivity to, from and within London. It stretches more than 100km from Reading and Heathrow in the west through central tunnels across to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. The new railway will stop at 41 accessible stations, 10 of which are new. It is expected to serve up to 200 million people each year. Improvements across existing lines has also been a priority: adding air conditioned and modernised trains with 20% reduction in energy consumption to the Piccadilly, Circle, Hammersmith & City, District and Metropolitan lines. Additionally, an extension to the Northern line is providing greater connectivity in the city bringing key areas in South London within 15 minutes of the West End and central London.

Zero emissions buses

London has one of highest number of zero emission buses in Europe, with 800 at present, and is on target to hit 10 percent of the whole fleet in 2022. All new buses to the network are zero-emission and sustained Government funding could see all buses converted as early as 2030, taking 500,000 tonnes of carbon out of the transport system. Such funding from the Government is critical if the benefits outlined in the plan are to be realised.

Green jobs

The benefits of investment in London buses are seen across the UK: TfL contracts support thousands of jobs outside London, with 3,000 roles in green bus manufacturing alone already created in Falkirk, Ballymena and Scarborough.

More than 300,000 jobs would be created if London’s public transport network was “greened” to reduce emissions in line with the Paris agreement. In London, measures such as electrifying the capital’s 9,000 vehicle bus fleet would mean 143,700 new jobs in the capital and a further 161,900 across the rest of the UK, largely as a result of stimulating the supply chain.

Mayor of London and Chair C40 Cities Sadiq Khan says: “London and other C40 cities are working closely together to lead public transport revolutions around the world. In London we expanded our Ultra Low Emission Zone, making it the largest in the world. We now have the largest zero-emission bus fleet in Western Europe and a third of the UK’s EV charge points. We’ve also set an ambitious target for 80 per cent of all journeys in London to be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport by 2041. But Mayors and city leaders need support. National governments must prioritise funding for urban public transport expansion and renewal before time runs out to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and avert a climate catastrophe.”

The Ultra Low Emission Zones meant that by 2019 the exposure to air pollution had been reduced by 94 percent within the zones.

The city will ensure 80% of all journeys in London are to be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport by 2041.

Sustained Government funding could see all buses converted as early as 2030, cutting 500,000 tonnes of carbon.

Jakarta’s Governor urges “sustainable mobility and better air quality” in CNN interview

On 15th October 2022, CNN Indonesia Forward sat down with Jakarta’s Governor, Anies Baswedan, to discuss the success of Jakarta’s public transport expansion project, JakLingko, and how public transport can be an integral solution to stop the climate crisis.

By prioritising public transport, the city has set a leading example of city-led climate leadership. As the Governor notes, in just 4 years, from 2017-2021, “the city has doubled its public transport coverage from 42% to 82%”.

The initiative integrated the routes, payment systems and management of bus providers into its city model, to triple the number of citizens using public transport on a daily basis from 350,000 to 1 million.

This approach has brought multiple benefits to the city, such as improving citizens’ health and finance. Since the project’s launch, Jakarta has improved air quality to slide down world rankings from being the world’s third most congested city to the 46th. Lower fares have enabled citizens to save money, by “reducing their monthly spending on public transport from 30% to 8%”.

However, the city does not plan to stop its expansion here. As the Governor notes, a clear roadmap to expanding public vehicle electrification is needed “to reach the city’s target of a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030”

To achieve this target, from now on, the city will only procure electric buses, so that “by 2030, all our buses, and all our fleets, will be electric”.

Jakarta is already on track to achieve this goal, with 40 electric buses already part of its fleet and 60 more being procured by the end of this year. In fact, through the JakLingko initiative, the city has already reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 26%. The Governor explains that “We are ahead of target. We have 4% to go in 8 years… So, I’m quite optimistic that perhaps around 2025 or 2026 at the latest, we will reach the 30% target”.

Jakarta is also moving ahead with the physical integration of different transport modes at stations, a notable example being the station redesign of the CSW intermodal transit hub to better connect the MRT service (serving 100,000 passengers a day) with the Transjakarta Corridors 1 (90,000 passengers a day) and 13 (25,000 passengers a day).

To conclude his interview, the Governor called on the essential support from national governments across the world to finance the transition to electric vehicles. Targets can only be achieved by setting a “common objective for the creation of sustainable mobility” and that this “is the kind of collaboration that is needed.”

Watch the interview in full on Youtube for an in-depth explanation of this pioneering and transformative project.