The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have developed a joint capacity programme on “Sustainable Transport Connectivity and COVID-19 Pandemic: pathways for greater resilience and sustainability” in order to support countries in incorporating into their medium- and long-term transport policies the best practices and lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic response, as well as to implement appropriate transport policies that will achieve greater resilience, inclusiveness and environmental sustainability of their transport connectivity.
Following the project inception meeting that took place on 17 September 2021, three virtual sub-regional capacity building workshops for Southeast Asia, South and Southwest Asia, and North and Central Asia will be organized to support the development and implementation of a sustainable transport pathway in the three sub-regions. The workshops will present the modelling tools that are used to project transport demand and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, policy scenarios that have been constructed to illustrate the impact of Covid-19, as well as to identify priority policies within the context of each sub-region’s unique challenges and needs. In addition, trends and possible future scenarios for demand in freight volumes and related CO2 emissions to 2050 will also be presented.