[sustran] World Bank Energy & Environment Strategy Consultation

Paul Barter tkpb at barter.pc.my
Tue Sep 16 14:13:02 JST 1997


Here are some more comments to the World Bank which explicitly refer to
Transport.  I have deleted the comments on other issues.


Comments on The World Bank Energy And Environment Strategy Paper
submitted by:
Michael Totten, Executive Director
Center for Renewable Energy & Sustainable Technology( CREST)
1200 18th St NW, 9th floor, Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-530-2231
Fax: 202-887-0497
Web: www.crest.org/

Given the number of excellent comments made by a number of other energy
professionals, I will constrain my comments to two specific areas that I
think the World Bank’s Energy And Environment Strategy Paper needs
substantial additional work.

MARKET TRANSFORMATION
........ stuff deleted......


TRANSPORTATION

The paper is fundamentally marred by the failure to mention, let alone
discuss or endorse, non-motorized transport designs for urban areas.
The words “pedestrian-friendly” and “bicycle” are nowhere to be found in
the Strategy paper, and “transit systems” are virtually ignored.  The
World Bank needs to have all transport planners at the Bank serve a
stint in Curitiba, Brazil, and learn of the most inspiring,
cost-effective, environmentally benign things that can be done with
transit-oriented development.  See, for example, the IIEC report,
“Integrated Transport Planning in Curitiba, Brazil”
(http://www.crest.org/planning/curitiba/index.html).

There is such an enormous literature on creating pedestrian, bike and
transit-friendly cities that provide quality mobility services and
amenities while minimizing motorized vehicle demand, capital and
operating costs, pollution, and related externalities, that I will not
repeat it here.

The paper should at least make reference to the voluminous publishings
in sustainable transport by such experts as Michael Replogle,
Environmental Defense Fund, (e.g., Non-Motorized Vehicles in Asia:
Strategies for Management --
http://www.crest.org/planning/nmv-mgmt-asia/index.html).

Discussion, endorsement, and commitment to actions on the kinds of ideas
sustainable transport experts have been presenting to the bank over the
past decade would also be essential for this paper to be complete.  The
Surface Transportation Policy Project also maintains a web site that
provides a good start in the sustainable transport area:
http://www.transact.org/



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