Developing Pathways to Low-Carbon Transport in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Closed

The proposed TA will assist the NHAR Provincial Government and five local governments in formulating strategies and policies for low-carbon transport. The TA is consistent with ADB's country partnership strategy for the PRC for 2011-2015 which support the government's efforts to foster a cleaner and more sustainable growth process (Pillar 2) by supporting the development of low-carbon transport systems, particularly in public transport. The TA is included in the PRC Country Operations Business Plan 2014-2016.Formulation of the TA draws upon the findings and recommendations of ADB's evaluation knowledge brief on Reducing Carbon Emissions from Transport Projects. The brief found that low-carbon transport strategies based on the avoid-shift-improve (ASI) paradigm can be the least costly ways to reducing CO2 emissions, and that such strategies can produce significant social and economic benefits for low-income people who are more dependent on public transport and non-motorized transport. The brief recommended estimation and monitoring of carbon emissions, and adopting carbon emission reduction approaches in project design and appraisal.The TA will adopt the ASI paradigm for developing a low carbon transport strategy for each assisted city, and a bottom-up approach for developing a consolidated low-carbon transport strategy for the provincial government, building from the strategies generated from each city. The ASI approach will be followed for each city as the basis for examining the city's current and future urban and transport sector development. Low carbon transport strategies will be selected after pre-feasibility analysis and carbon emissions estimation using emission estimation tools. The selected strategies will be aligned for a phased implementation plan for each city, then the plans for each city will be consolidated into a provincial government level implementation plan. Future travel demand will be estimated using a simplified travel demand forecast model.The TA will develop an emission estimation method for the NHAR from existing tools such as Transport Emissions Evaluation Models for Projects (TEEMP), For Future Inland Transport Systems (ForFIT) or travel demand forecast model based method. The results from different tools will be reviewed and selected for evaluating emissions reduction impact of low-carbon transport strategies for the project cities.