1ST MENA CONFERENCE ON ENERGY FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT

Background

In September 2015, Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 corresponding targets. United Nations efforts on promoting a sustainable future for everyone led to the historical signature in April 2016 of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change that brings for the first time all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. The Paris Agreement central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Transport represents almost a quarter of World’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and is the main cause of air pollution in cities. Within this sector, road transport is by far the biggest emitter accounting for more than 70% of all GHG emissions from transport in 2014.

In Tunisia and in the MENA region, the transport sector is among the most energy-intensive sectors and represents by itself an energy consumption of around 33.5% and GHG emissions in the same order of magnitude. This consumption is due to the rapid development of the fleet of road transport vehicles which has dramatically increased during the last decades. In the MENA region, the energy mix in the Transport sector is dominated by hydrocarbons with about 99.6% and only 0.4% for electricity in Tunisia case.

It is in this context that the Tunisian-Hungarian-Norwegian project Solar Fuelled Electric Mobility (SoFEM) between the National Agency for Energy Conservation and its partners aim to organize the first MENA Conference on Energy for Sustainable Transport.

Objectives

The objectives of this Conference will be to build capacities and share best practices on successful implementation of sustainable energy transport projects and programmes in developed and developing countries, and to address challenges related to providing access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all. It is intended to bring actors of the transport sector in Tunisia and the MENA region together to share new ideas, highlight ground-breaking innovations, build networks, discuss business models and development of tools and increase knowledge on new opportunities to provide energy for sustainable transport. The Conference is also intended to present the SoFEM, the winner of the UN DESA Energy Grant 2016. 

At the conclusion of this Conference, it is anticipated that the participants will gain: (1) knowledge of successful projects of various scales and new and innovative models for promoting sustainable transport; (2) enhanced understanding of the issues faced by organizations and/or individuals implementing sustainable transport projects; (3) awareness of major technical, managerial and financial challenges related to the implementation of these projects; and (4) familiarity with the 3 dimensions of energy for sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) and the nexus of energy and transport.