The Asia LEDS Secretariat, hosted by ICLEI South Asia and with support from the Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation, facilitated the participation of national government representatives from Bhutan, Sri Lanka and India in the workshop on ‘Moving towards Sustainable, Energy Efficient, Urban Mobility in Emerging Cities’, in Singapore from the 7th to 9th of May 2018. The workshop was supported by ALP as part of ALP’s Transport Community of Practice (CoP) activities. The Transport COP, focuses on moving towards clean mobility by strengthening the operational and energy efficiency of public transport policies and systems.
 
The workshop was planned under the Energy Smart Communities’ Initiative (ESCI) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). The Low Emissions Development Strategies Global Partnership Secretariat (LEDS GP), the Transport Working Group (TWG and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) co-organised the workshop.

The workshop aimed at mobilizing the cities to move towards sustainable and energy efficient urban mobility. It was attended by the representatives from the APEC countries – Bhutan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, India, Philippines and Vietnam. Officials from Ministry/Department of Transport and officials involved in the transport sector projects of APEC countries also participated.

The event provided a learning experience for political decision makers at the national level, local level and technical staff members representing the APEC and other countries. The study tour, conducted as part of the workshop, focused on the following key aspects:

• National and subnational institutional set up towards sustainable urban transport
• Sustainable urban land use and mobility planning
• Financing mechanisms and funding sources of sustainable urban mobility
• Lessons learnt on reform projects in Singapore and other APEC countries
• Planning and implementation of new transport technologies

It helped the participants to engage in peer to peer knowledge exchange, disseminate knowledge and lessons learnt from APEC countries. It also provided a platform to present and discuss the challenges faced on mobility sector in their respective countries. Auto rickshaws affecting the environment, battery charging for electric vehicles, and access to technical support were some of the challenges discussed by the participating countries.

The ALP and LEDS GP Transport Working Group aims to address some of the above challenges through the transport (Clean Mobility) CoP. The scope of the online sessions under the ALP transport CoP was discussed in brief in order to sensitize them on the importance of the ongoing and upcoming activities under the project.
Representatives from Bhutan, Sri Lanka and India also interacted with officials from Centre for Liveable Cities, Ministry of National Development, Singapore and discussed their ongoing activities.