NITI Aayog And World Resources Institute Launch Forum To Decarbonise India’s Transport Sector

NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute (WRI), India, jointly launched the ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India as part of the NDC-Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA) project on Monday (23 August).

The launch was held virtually and inaugurated by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. Dignitaries from various ministries and NDC-TIA project partners, and stakeholders from the mobility and the energy sector were present during the launch.

The project aims at bringing down the peak level of GHG emissions (transport sector) in Asia (in line with a well below 2-degree pathway), resulting in problems like congestion and air pollution.

“India has a massive and diverse transport sector, which is also the third most CO2 emitting sector. Data from (IEA, 2020; Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, 2018) suggests that within the transport sector, road transport contributes to more than 90 per cent of the total CO2 emissions,” NITI Aayog said in a statement.

Through various policy measures and initiatives, the Government of India is continuously working towards the decarbonisation of road transport, with a significant focus on adopting electric vehicles (EVs) in the country.

“NITI Aayog has been at the helm of the promotion of EVs and sustainable mobility through the National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage,” it added.

The NDC-TIA India component focuses on developing a coherent strategy of effective policies and forming a multi-stakeholder platform for decarbonising transport in the country.

Through this forum, the WRI India team and NITI Aayog and other project partners will work in close coordination with all these stakeholders to formulate strategies and develop appropriate business models to accelerate electric mobility in India.

The forum will also provide a platform to initiate dialogues to develop uniform policies and help achieve specific results in reducing emissions from the transport sector.

The NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (TIA 2020-2023) is a joint programme of seven organisations that will engage China, India, and Vietnam in promoting a comprehensive approach to decarbonising transport in their respective countries. The project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI).

The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supported the initiative based on a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.

NITI Aayog is the implementing partner for the India component of the project.