[sustran] Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA) News Digest-Vol. 5 Issue 8

[sudhir]

Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA) News Digest
Vol. 5 Issue 8
15 May 2008

SUMA News Digest is a free weekly e-mail publication that features
news, information, and events related to sustainable urban
transportation in Asia.

*** VISIT THE SUMA PAGES:http://www.cleanairnet.org/suma***

 HEADLINES

ASIA: Asia launches climate change fund with US$40m 6 May, 2008

Efforts to battle Climate change in Asia received a boost when ADB
announced an establishment of a new fund of $40 million to combat
climate change. The purpose of the fund is to facilitate greater
investments in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific to address
the causes and consequences of global warming. Money from the fund
will be used to provide grant financing for technical assistance,
investment projects, research and other activities.  Read
Morehttp://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72640.html

GLOBAL: Pollution 'ups blood clot risk' 12 May, 2008

Harvard School of Public Health has found that breathing of air
pollution affected development of deep vein thrombosis - blood clots
in the legs - in a study of 2,000 people. This conclusion is set to
raise the stakes in fighting the global pollution. The researchers
have concluded that the pollution made the blood more sticky thus more
likely to clot.
Read More
http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72655.html

CHINA:  Investment in public transit can help save the world 12 May,
2008

In this news report, the reporter has questioned the supply oriented
policies of the government and has explained how the investment in
public transit would improve the traffic/environment of a city.  Read
more to know as to why public transit can save our world.
 http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72649.html

INDIA: Shimla Road Users and Pedestrians Act 2007 Enforced

Himachal Pradesh State Government in India has enacted a Road User &
Pedestrian act in order to convert the City into sustainable city.
This act is an Indian version of congestion charge technique being
applied in other parts of world. This act restricts the vehicle usage
by charging annual fees on several roads. The charge is waived of for
people who currently reside or work on those roads on submission of
valid documents. Success of this scheme would popularize the concept
of clean and green city. Read more http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72618.html

USA :  Unmanned Aircraft To Study Southern California Smog And Its
Consequences 8  May, 2008

CAPPS – The California Air Pollution Profiling study by research
scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography aims to assess
Southern California's potential for climate change its sources of air
pollution. The characteristics of Southern California climate and
meteorology - ranging from its dry weather to its tendency to trap
rather than export smog - could make it especially prone to climate
change consequences of air pollution such as accelerated snowmelt and
dimming at ground level. Read this interesting article
http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72661.html

COMBODIA: Offer Vehicle License Plates at Point Of Sale: Cambodian PM
15 May 2008

The news report suggests that the government officials and the general
public is buoyant with the announcement of vehicle retailers to
provide temporary license plates on purchase of automobiles. The
government hopes to control vehicle numbers with such a measure. But
the moot point is whether easing of restricted, lengthy, complex
procedures would actually control or induce the vehicular growth.
Readmore
http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72660.html

More air quality and sustainable mobility news at
http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/propertyvalue-14783.html

* * * *
INTERESTING FINDS

Developing Integrated Emission Strategies for Existing Land
Transport" (DIESEL) Program, Bangkok - Thailand

The DIESEL program is a three year study and technical assistance
project on pollution from in-use diesel vehicles in Bangkok, Thailand.
The project was funded by a grant from the Energy Sector Management
Assistance Programme (ESMAP) and the Environment and Social
Development Department (EASES) in the East Asia and Pacific Region of
the World Bank. The program aims at developing a comprehensive
understanding of the in-use diesel vehicles, their emissions and
emission control options and decision making for better urban air
quality in Asian cities. The five principal tasks of the program were
to -Enhance the capacity of local stakeholders, analyze the potential
to reduce local emissions, assess the effectiveness of a select number
of viable and affordable policies, prepare tools to assist decision
makers and disseminate research findings through the Clean Air
Initiative networks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Read More
 http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72628.html

Success stories within the road transport sector on reducing
greenhouse gas emission and producing ancillary benefits (2008)

 For EU to meet its intermediate and long term targets on Climate
Change it is essential that the environmental performance of the
transport sector notably improves. In order to establish the best
practices, EEA commissioned the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to
undertake a study identifying and reporting on 'success stories' in
the road transport sector. The following six projects were cherry-
picked and investigated in order to establish the reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions and ancillary benefits.
•The Ecodrive Programme (The Netherlands)
•Speed Control (The Netherlands)
•Environmental Zone (Czech Republic)
•London Congestion Charging Zone (United Kingdom)
•Freight Consolidation Centre (United Kingdom)
•Teleconferencing (United Kingdom)
Read more:http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72632.html

Brazil, India's Citizens Are Greenest, Survey Finds By : National
Geographic & GlobeScan

A global survey on lifestyle habits has rated Brazil and India's
citizens as greenest in the whole world. National Geographic and the
international polling firm GlobeScan conducted a study measuring and
monitoring consumer progress toward environmentally sustainable
consumption in 14 countries around the world, interviewing 14000
consumers. The index developed "Greendex" is a meta-index composed of
four sub-indexes: housing, transportation, food, and consumption of
goods. The goods sub-index takes into account everyday purchases and
waste disposal, as well as ownership of big-ticket items such as
appliances. Read more http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72630.html

 Saving the Climate @ the Speed of Light
By:  Dennis Pamlin &  Katalin Sozomolanyi

 Information Communication Technologies can be utilized as a demand
management – travel replace strategy. In this report, the authors
strive to inspire actions that can support ICT strategy for combating
climate change. The project "Saving the climate @ the speed of light"
is a joint ETNO-WWF initiative. It began in Budapest after the First
European Conference on Telecommunications and Sustainability on 25-26
November 2004. The conclusions of this report are really interesting.
Read More
 http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72645.html

* * * * *
MARK YOUR CALENDARS

ECOMM 2008 - The 11th Annual European Conference On Mobility
Management,Travel Demand Management - Tackling Climate Change, 4-6
June-2008, Londonhttp://www.ecomm2008.eu/

Towards Carfree Cities VIII, Rethinking Mobility, Rediscovering
Proximity
16-20 June 2008, Portland, Oregon, USA,http://www.carfreeportland.org/

World Cities Summit 2008,
Livable and Vibrant Cities,
23-25 June 2008, Singapore,http://www.worldcities.com.sg/

Fourteenth International Conference on Urban Transport and the
Environment in the 21st Century, 1 - 3 September 2008, Malta,http://
www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2008/urban08/

PODCAR City Sustainable Transport Conference,
14-16 September 2008, Ithaca,  New York,http://www.podcar.org/
ithacaconference/

UITP 2nd Sustainable Development Conference
Making tomorrow today
22-24 October 2008, Milan, Italyhttp://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72425.html

Better Air Quality (BAQ) Workshop 2008
12-14 November 2008 Bangkok, Thailand
Call for Abstracts ongoing; First Call for Pre-events
http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-72312.html

See more SUT eventshttp://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/propertyvalue-27089.html

See CAI-Asia's events calendarhttp://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/propertyvalue-13577.html

* * * CONTRIBUTE * * *
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Past issues from March and April 2008 are found athttp://groups.google.com/group/suma-news

* * * ABOUT SUMA * * *

The Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA) program of the Clean Air
Initiative for Asian Cities (www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia), Asian
Development Bank (www.adb.org), EMBARQ-the World Resources Institute
Center  for Sustainable Transport (http://embarq.wri.org), GTZ
Sustainable Urban Transport Project (www.sutp.org), Interface for
Cycling Expertise (www.cycling.nl), Institute for Transportation and
Development Policy (www.itdp.org), and United Nations Center for
Regional Development (www.uncrd.or.jp/est) is made possible through
the generous support of the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (www.sida.se).
SUMA works with Asian countries and cities to strengthen then
formulation and implementation of sustainable urban transportation
policies, specifically in
(i)                 Improving urban air quality by adopting AQM
planning in sustainable transport policies and promoting public
transportation,
(ii)               Improving road safety by encouraging non-motorized
transport and public transport, and
(iii)             Reducing transport's contribution to climate change
by adopting a co-benefits approach with urban air quality management.