The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established in 1967 and has its Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia. The ASEAN Working Groups on Land Transport, Transport Facilitation and on Climate Change were established to improve regional coordination on Transport and Climate Change issues.

The current trends in the transport sector in Asia are unsustainable. In 2050, it is estimated that there will be 510 million vehicles in the region, including 124 million cars and 305 million motorcycles. With 310 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, transport in ASEAN is a significant contributor to global CO2 emissions.

Furthermore, the transport sector has the second highest share of total final energy consumption in the ASEAN region. Congestion, road safety and air pollution responsible for 7 million premature deaths globally are among the key issues related to transport. Sustainable transport must not only focus on passenger cars, but also consider freight vehicles and motorcycles as well.

There are large synergies between local and global sustainability, particularly when local pollutants such as black carbon--the 2nd largest contributor to climate change after CO2 – are considered. However, there are multiple options and vast potentials to increase energy efficiency and to reduce emissions in the land transport sector of ASEAN Member States (AMS). ASEAN’s Kuala Lumpur Transport Strategic Plan 2016-2025 includes sustainable transport actions, designed to help reduce transport’s environmental footprint. This plan is also known as Kuala Lumpur Transport Strategic Action Plan, KLTSP.

In order to mitigate the impacts of increasing transport activity, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has commissioned the GIZ to implement the project “Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Mitigation for the Land Transport Sector in the ASEAN Region” shortly.

The overall goal of Phase II is to improve the conditions for the implementation of measures to increase energy efficiency and reduce climate relevant emissions from the land transport sector in the ASEAN Region at the regional and national level.

The project continues to provide strategic advice to counterparts and to support them in taking concrete action with regard to transport and climate change.