Asia needs Regional Agreement on Green Freight, international organizations decide

6 December 2012 – To address the objective of more efficient freight systems and the increasing problem of the rapidly growing greenhouse gases and air pollution from road freight transport in Asia; a regional agreement on green freight for Asia will be developed. The initial discussion on the concept regional agreement will be held at the seventh Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) Forum in Bali, Indonesia in April, 2013. The regional agreement will consist of a regional policy guideline and framework for government and will suggest possible actions to be taken to improve the overall performance from environmental gains of the freight and logistics sector in developing Asia.

This was announced by the United Nations Centre for Regional Development at the Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2012 conference in Hong Kong. The development of the regional agreement will be supported by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Asian Development Bank, German International Cooperation, Clean Air Asia, and the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport.

The announcement on a regional agreement on Green Freight in Asia follows earlier consensus between 22 Asian Governments in 2010 to work towards greening the freight sector as part of the Bangkok Declaration for 2020 – Sustainable Transport Goals for 2010-2020. The consensus of Asian countries towards green freight was further confirmed in the 6th Regional EST Forum in Delhi, India in December, 2011 where participating Asian countries agreed to the recommendation to develop a regional agreement to collectively address freight issues under the framework of the Regional EST Forum in Asia.

Data presented at the BAQ 2012 conference highlight the need for more effective government policy to reduce the negative environmental impacts of green freight in Asia. Freight vehicles are less than 10% of the overall vehicle fleet in developing Asia, yet these vehciles are responsible for over 50% of CO2 emissions according to Clean Air Asia. At the same time the International Energy Agency has forecasted an eightfold increase in transport freight activities by 2050 compared to 2000. Improving the environmental performance of the freight sector in Asia can go hand in hand with improving the efficiency of the logistics sector in Asia. While logistics costs in Europe and the United States of America are generally less than 10% of GDP, in developing Asia these are typically between 17 and 25%.

The regional agreement on green freight will build on the work of green freight by Clean Air Asia which started with its involvement in a small scale technology demonstration project in Guangzhou, China in 2008, followed by a large scale Global Environment Facility demonstration program in Guangdong province in 2010. Clean Air Asia was then instrumental in the development of the national level China Green Freight Initiative in 2012. Clean Air Asia has a lead role in the development of the Green Freight Initiative in India and is part of the Green Freight Corridors Pilot Project of the Greater Mekong Sub-region Program of the Asian Development Bank.

In 2011, Clean Air Asia and the Sustainable Supply Chain Centre ‐ Asia Pacific (SSCCAP) founded The Green Freight Asia Network, which brings together shippers, carriers and logistic service providers as well as manufacturers, associations and the public sector to enhance private sector collaboration, not only through sharing best practices in sustainable supply chain operations, but also to serve as a common voice in proactively engaging policymakers in green freight, at the national and regional levels. Leading shippers and companies in the Green Freight Asia Network include TNT, DHL, UPS, and Ikea.