Webinar on Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST): Ways Ahead for Nepal

By Suman Udas

Realizing the importance of environmentally sustainable transport (EST) to address environmental, social and economic issues related transport sector in Nepal, webinar on “Environmentally Sustainable Transport: Ways Ahead for Nepal” is being organized on 15th September, 2010 at DECC Hall, United World Trade Center, 4th floor Tripureshwor, Kathmandu.

International EST expert and Nepali presenter will share their expertise and the outcomes of EST forum recently held in Bangkok, live over the web, and the participants in Nepal will get an opportunity to interact with them. This event will also save significant amount of carbon that would otherwise have been released into atmosphere to organize a similar seminar.  At the end of the webinar, the participants will be able to

• Define EST and list various EST elements as per EST Framework developed by United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
• Describe the relevancy/benefits of formulating national level framework /strategy
• Explain the steps and procedures required for formulating national EST framework/ strategy on the basis of experiences of CAI Asia for Philippines
• Describe outcomes of recent EST forum held in Bangkok organized by UNCRD
• Identify relevant partners and stakeholders and their respective roles to initiate work for devising national EST framework for Nepal

Transportation plays a very important role in economic development of any country, especially in the context of developing countries with the aspiration of linking its underdeveloped regions with more developed ones. There needs to be a paradigm shift in a way that transportation system is developed. A new policy approach is needed which places environmental, social and economic criteria upfront along with other policy goals.  Realizing this, the concept of Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) was brought forward. The EST concept was originally adopted by nations belonging to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with the objective of reducing negative impacts of transportation system development. OECD’s EST project has defined EST as “Transportation that does not endanger public health or ecosystems and meets needs for access consistent with a) use of renewable resources below their rates of regeneration, and b) use of non-renewable resources below the rates of development of renewable substitutes”. EST concept realizes the importance of transportation to meet the socio-economic demands and balances this with the need to protect the environment. United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) has defined EST in general terms as “transport that meets the needs of the present without preventing future generation from meeting their needs”.

The webinar is organized by Clean Air Network Nepal (CANN) in coordination with Ministry of Physical Planning and Works and the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities Center (CAI-Asia Center). The webinar is being organized in support of the Knowledge Air Project implemented by the CAI Asia Center, Clean Energy Nepal and Winrock International on behalf of the Asian Development Bank.