Climate notes: An international comparison of public urban transport

The importance of urban transport as part of international efforts to reduce greenhouse gases is growing. On the one hand, transport has long been a matter of concern for climate policy. The transport sector accounts for around 13% of total global greenhouse gas emissions and for 23% of global energy-related greenhouse gases. On the other hand, urban transport is also of growing interest in terms of climate policy because the populations living in cities are growing. Today around 50% of the world’s population lives in a city, and this figure is expected to rise to 70% by 2050. This article shows how public urban transport accounts for a different share of all motorized passenger kilometers in various cities worldwide, looks at the CO2 emissions of passenger traffic per head, and discusses the conditions for effectively supporting public urban transport.