Climate change cannot be stopped without decarbonizing the movement of people and goods. While the transport sector is responsible for 24% of global direct CO2 emissions, from fuel combustion alone, the demand for mobility remains ever-increasing, which highlights the importance for the NDCs under the Paris agreement to set transport decarbonization objectives. To deeply transform our mobility systems, we need bold leadership to drive intertwined socio-technical transitions which challenges the status quo of the human behavior and interaction with our planet.  

In this context the TEC has published a technical paper on ‘Deep decarbonization for sustainable mobility’, which includes recommendations on how to identify and analyze the development, diffusion, and impacts of advanced decarbonization technologies for road transport and mobility.    

With a similar purpose of catalyzing a sustainability transformation, the BMW Foundation has launched the RISE Cities Program to advance Responsible Leadership towards Resilient, Intelligent, Sustainable, and Equitable futures in human settlements. The Program has identified several strategic sectors with a multiplier effect on decarbonization, such as in the mobility sector, where BMW Foundation is facilitating mutual learning spaces to support the development of solutions in various local ecosystems.  

Interlinked with the 2030 Agenda’s target for ‘safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport system for all’, the future of mobility, certainly, is not just a technological issue, but social, economic, cultural, and environmental as well, propelled by digitalization and driven by responsible leadership international, national and city levels.  In this context, the future of mobility must be looked at from a broader perspective. For while much emphasis is placed on improving spatial mobility, through digitalization and innovative transport technologies; driving social mobility must be viewed as equally vital in transforming the transport sector. Policy makers are vital contributors in facilitating participatory processes for the co-design and implementation of resilient, intelligent, sustainable, and equitable mobility including all social groups and genders.  

Mobility seen as an enabler of human development is about enhancing peoples’ potential and is a pre-condition for human development and growth. Thus, it should be seen as a human right. It is about access, opportunity, participation, and connectivity for all and for all abilities. It allows people to take part and advance their life in all senses regardless of background and preferences. It offers people choices and provides them with agency and the ability to act without being curtailed by constraints.

In this event, the TEC in collaboration with the BMW Foundation will bring together responsible leaders  from private and public sectors; and from international, national and city governmental levels; to reflect on our actions in promoting a mobility transition towards a model that cares for human rights, the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and of the Paris Agreement; to share different experiences and perspectives; as well as to discuss approaches to overcoming barriers and enabling environments to catalyze technological disruption, policy entrepreneurship and societal revolution.  


Objectives    

1) Enhance understanding on global trends, progress, and drivers of future mobility, the co-relation between mobility and the following 4 RISE dimensions: Resilience, Intelligence, Sustainability, and Equity.  

2) Show real case examples of spatial and social mobility solutions, already implemented globally, including challenges and best practices at different scales and regions (city and national levels).  

3) Discuss how responsible leaders, from different sectors and governmental levels, can contribute at individual, community, and systemic level to dynamize the deployment of cutting-edge technologies, reform of regulatory frameworks and catalyze socio-cultural transformation towards climate-positive mobility systems.