The transport sector is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Mexico and has witnessed the highest growth rate over the past 10 years. Today over 77% of the Mexican population lives in urban areas that are experiencing growth rates in fossil fuel consumption and in private car ownership.

On April 15-16, Indian and international experts will discuss the current scenario of sustainable transport and urban planning in India, and the opportunities for the future of sustainable cities

In the fight against climate change, Mexico will receive US$3 million from the Partnership for Market Readiness, a grant initiative from the World Bank to finance multiple mitigation strategies

“The world’s urban areas have a tremendous opportunity to contribute to solutions, and a unique capacity to implement change that would affect the large majority of the world’s population.”    - Benoit Lefevre, 

Urbanization is one of the most significant modern-day phenomena and making urban transport more sustainable has become an urgent development priority. Six out of 10 people will live in cities by 2030. These growing cities are struggling to provide services to residents and deal with overburdened roads, as well as the threat of climate change and rising road traffic injuries.

The need for action on sustainable transport has never been more apparent than it is today. The world’s population is expected to reach a whopping 9.8 billion people by 2050, with about 70 percentof these people residing in cities.

This post was originally published by EMBARQ Director Holger Dalkmann on WRI Insights.

WRI’s experts will continue to provide commentary and analysis of the results of the Rio+20 conference through our series, “Rio+20 in the Rear View.” Check Insights this week and next for more post-Rio+20 coverage.

As we look to make sense of the Rio+20 conference that concluded last week, we can confidently say that transportation drove its way to the top of the sustainable development agenda.