UIC hosted a side event on the evening of 15 December at the UN Headquarters in New York, with guest presenter Michael Replogle, Founder and Policy Director of ITDP. This was the only event specifically focused on transport during the two-day “Intersessional” meeting to prepare for Rio+20.

Participants included representatives from the government delegations of Switzerland and Colombia, staff from UN DESA, international consultants and representatives from transport and other organisations.

UIC presented the contribution that railways make to sustainable development, and called for Rio+20 to promote sustainable transport in its outcome document. ITDP talked about urban transport and reducing negative impacts such as pollution and accidents through using cleaner public transport systems and active travel.

There was then a discussion about what we should aim for as an outcome for transport at Rio+20. ITDP proposed that there should be Sustainable Development Goals on transport. The UN reminded the group that it is vital to get national government support for such proposals since it is the national government delegations who will be parties to the agreement reached at Rio+20.

Another suggestion, given that Rio+20 will consider the structure of the United Nations regarding environment and sustainable development, was to create a “UN Transport” organization or data hub, to provide a point of convergence between all the different UN agencies playing a role in transport (e.g. UNECE, UNEP, ICAO, UNFCCC and so on). This proposal had less consensus, with many stakeholders accepting the need for better coordination at UN level on transport issues, but no-one wanting to create a new bureaucracy.