Transport

The Special Envoy will travel in South-East Asia and will meet with Ministers as well as the private sector, public sector and NGO stakeholders in Lao PDR (5-7 April), Thailand (10 April), the Philippines (11-14 April) and Malaysia (17-19 April) to advocate for the effective implementation of the

Iraq’s has become the 78th contacting party to the TIR Convention. All its neighbours: the Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, the Syrian Arab Republic, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, are also contracting parties, opening up perspectives for more efficient and secure flow of goods across the region, connecting with markets across all of Europe, Asia – including India, Pakistan  and China – and beyond.

UNECE’s Inland Transport Committee (ITC) today adopted the Model Rules on the Permanent Identification of Railway Rolling Stock, which will facilitate the financing and acquisition of railway rolling stock leading to a reduced cost for those wishing to invest in the railways.  

Electrification of vehicles is an important tool to align the transport sector with a climate neutral future and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Focused on climate actions, this year’s annual session of UNECE’s Inland Transport Committee (ITC) agreed on dedicated actions to facilitate wider adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) by working on policy harmonization, improving relevant data collection, and fostering global exchanges among experts in the public and private sector. 

Today as part of the annual session of UNECE's Inland Transport Committee (ITC), ministers from around the world adopted a Ministerial Declaration that calls for harnessing the full potential of inland transport solutions in the global fight against climate change. The declaration will give direction to the work of ITC as the United Nations platform for inland transport to deliver on climate change solutions and accelerate the transition to decarbonized mobility and net zero or low emissions in the inland transport sector. 

Inland transport plays a crucial role in the global economy, connecting people, goods and services to markets and opportunities. However, the rapid growth in this sector has had a significant impact on the environment. The increasing demand for faster and more efficient modes of transport has led to a substantial increase in the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, exacerbating the effects of climate change. 

UNECE’s new Glossary for Inland Water Transport provides a comprehensive list of terms and definitions used in the various fields of inland waterways, navigation and transport of goods and passengers by inland waterways.  

This trilingual publication in English, French and Russian comprises over 700 terms with synonyms and their definitions used in international conventions and agreements, UNECE resolutions and publications. 

The glossary aims to:  

UNECE and the Islamic Development Bank launched today the International Transport Infrastructure Observatory (ITIO), a web-based platform that hosts data on a large variety of transport infrastructure networks, including road, rail, inland waterways, ports, airports, intermodal terminals, logistics centers, and border crossing points across Europe, Asia, Middle East, Western Mediterranean and North Africa.  

The UN Road Safety Fund has issued its 2023 call for proposals, which will disburse USD 4 million to approved projects aimed at reducing road traffic fatalities. The call for proposals is open between 06 February 2023 and 03 April 2023 (23:59 CET).   

The duration of submitted projects may be up to a maximum of three years. The call invites eligible participating organizations to submit projects responding to the following priorities: 

Participants in the motor industry’s complex supply chains, regulators as well as investors seeking to invest sustainably are increasingly interested in considering the carbon footprint of vehicles over their entire lifetime - from material extraction and production to manufacturing, use and disposal.  

Lifecycle assessments of products are becoming common practice in a variety of industries, but in the automotive industry, methodologies to determine cradle-to-grave carbon emissions have so far been diverse and thus non-comparable.