Green issues top transport discussion

  • 2011-04-06
  • From wire reports

VILNIUS - The need for coordinated policies to ensure transport grows sustainably to benefit the environment as well as the economy was the topic of a two-day meeting that opened on April 4 in the Lithuanian town of Druskininkai, reports news agency ELTA. The second preparatory meeting of the Economic and Environmental Forum, organized by the Office of the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities in cooperation with the Lithuanian Chairmanship, brought together more than 150 experts and officials from the OSCE’s 56 participating states. “The Lithuanian Chairmanship is inviting the OSCE participating states, international organizations, experts and civil society representatives to express their views, ideas and suggestions on how to promote sustainable transport and implement its principles in legislation and business practices,” said Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Egidijus Meilunas at the opening session. Lithuanian Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Arunas Staras said: “Rising incomes, more leisure time, new technologies and the ageing population are just a few examples of trends that will influence the future development of the transport sector in terms of both freight and passenger transport. Therefore, those changes are likely to demand greater transport safety, security and comfort, while the growth of traffic and urban environmental tension risks working in the opposite direction.”

Participants met to discuss the role of policies in enhancing innovation and technologies for environmentally-friendly transportation choices, the facilitation of international land transport and the integration of transport networks in the OSCE area. OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut emphasized that the transport sector “provides fundamental cross-sectoral communication channels, brings people and businesses closer to each other, and facilitates trade, thus making development and growth possible and contributing to spreading prosperity.”

Highlighting the positive economic and social benefits of increasing transport as well as the environmental threats, the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, Goran Svilanovic, said: “An increase of transport activities will doubtless generate social and economic wealth, but it can also entail energy scarcity, increase greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate environment degradation, and lead to traffic congestion. Therefore, it is in our interest to discuss and work on the right policies, enhance our cooperation, focus on new technologies and change our behavior as users. We cannot question the necessity of moving, but we have to learn how to do it in a sustainable way.”

The 19th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum focused on promotion of common actions and cooperation in the OSCE area in the fields of development of sustainable energy and transport. The First Preparatory Meeting on sustainable energy was held on Feb. 7-8 in Vienna. The concluding Meeting of the Forum will be held in Prague on Sept. 14-16.