The 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27) was hosted this year on 6-18 November in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt. The objective was to accelerate global climate action through emissions’ reduction, scaled-up adaptation efforts, and enhanced flows of appropriate finance able to ensure a ‘just transition’. 

Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals depends on efficient multi-modal transport systems and services where roads play a central role. Effective road transport, road networks, tunnels and bridges, and the associated services are thus essential to ensure the sustainable mobility of people and goods and to ensure we leave no one behind. 

In this context, the International Road Federation together with the European Association of Tollway Operators (ASECAP), ERTICO, the European Union Road Federation (ERF) the International Road Transport Union (IRU), the African Road Maintenance Funds Administration (ARMFA), and the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA-AITES), leading organisations in the road sector, published a joint statement to restate the sector’s firm commitment to effectively reduce CO₂ emissions to net-zero by 2050 in line with the Paris Agreement. 

“We need to embrace system thinking and decarbonise without compromising the services we provide and without undermining a network (roads, tunnels and bridges) that serves all other transport modes, including active mobility and mass transport” commented IRF President, Anouar Benazzouz.