UIC, Amtrak, the US national passenger rail operator, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) and the Partnership for SLoCaT will organise “On Track to Clean & Green Transport” – a high-level meeting on transport and climate change on 22 September in New York, the day before the Climate Summit announced by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The event will be supported by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), the European Rail Industry (UNIFE) and the Canadian rail operator Via Rail.
The audience of this event, which represents a crucial step towards unlocking the potential of sustainable transport, will mainly be composed of heads of railway companies worldwide, representatives of international organisations (OECD, development banks), media and the world of diplomacy.
High-level speakers will participate in this important event and give their vision of potential development within the railways in the future and the role they can play regarding climate change.
During the morning session participants will take a closer look at the role that railways can play in the realisation of sustainable transport and addressing climate change. Over the last years the transport sector has taken substantive action to address climate change in the context of sustainable development.
Recent accomplishments and future plans of Amtrak and other operators in strengthening the position of railways in the USA and worldwide will be discussed and linkages will be made with the post-2015 development agenda that is currently being discussed in the United Nations.
The afternoon part of the event will take a broader look at the need to develop low carbon sustainable transport systems, the mitigation potential of the transport sector and a roadmap for future action. The conclusions of the event will support discussions at the UN Secretary’s General’s Climate Summit (http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/) to be held on the following day.
The UIC Director General will participate in this event as well as other UIC Members such as Amtrak, JR East, VIA Rail or Mongolian Railways.
The latest version of the programme is available here:
http://uic.org/com/IMG/pdf/draft_program_22_september_event-16_september.pdf
About this event, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux says:
“All the work carried out over these past few years by UIC, in conjunction with its members and partners, has succeeded in showing the great relevance and environmental value of the railways in modern society. Since promoting the train at COP 15 in Copenhagen, the signing of the declaration by our key members in Kyoto, publishing works with the International Energy Agency of the OECD which refer to the success of the Europe Train project, involvement in Rio+20, and the unprecedented recognition of the railways, from preparing COP 21 in Paris to holding a symbolic event in the lead up to the United Nations Climate Summit in New York, all this work among other day-to-day actions strengthen rail’s and UIC’s credibility to promote and apply sustainable development on a global scale.”
