Partners for Cleaner Fuels and Vehicles
Partnership for Vehicle and Fuel Technology Management
Small Initiatives Clearinghouse
Global Initiative on Transport Emissions
What's New
Getting Started:
As part of the preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the GITE was instrumental in creating a Partnership for Cleaner Fuels and Vehicles. Partners include a number of governments, non-government organizations and industry. The Partnership seeks to work with developing countries to phase out the use of lead and sulfur in fuels as well as to work toward improving fuel quality in general. Activities will be aimed at building capacities, improving availability and accessibility of technical information, setting up a network of experts from auto, oil and technology industries to advise on refinery reformulation, technical progress in the vehicle and fuel sectors, costs and means of financing as well promoting the raising of vehicular standards and encouraging more effective inspection and maintenance programs.
The first Steering Committee meeting was held at UN Headquarters in New York on 14-15 November 2002. The Partnership is still open to new members.
Click on Partnership for Cleaner Fuels for more information.
Recently completed:
The UN Car Free Day Series
The first Practicum was held 6-8 February 2002 in Bogotá, Colombia and coincided with Bogotá's third annual Car Free Day, held Thursday 7 February. The City closed all of its streets to private vehicles, forcing all of its 7 million inhabitants to use public or alternative transport to go about daily activities, thus showing that the city can remain productive and in fact be more efficient without the use of private vehicles. The Practicum was attended by Mayors and city officials from almost every capital city in Latin America. Participants discussed obstacles to development of policies for sustainable transport, learned about the implementation of the Car Free Day in Bogotá, observed the Car Free Day first hand, and drafted a declaration siting Car Free Days as an excellent transport planning tool to be submitted to the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Several participating cities stated their intention to hold Car Free Days of their own including Guatemala City, Guatemala, Guallaquil, Ecuador, and Asunción, Paraguay. Many partners contributed in-kind assistance to the implementation of the meeting. Local private sector partners provided the venue and conference facilities, hosted dinners, and provided transportation. Local NGOs provided valuable assistance in creating wide-spread support for the event.
In addition to the activities in Bogotá, the GITE worked with the Colombian Ministry of Environment to invite other Colombian Cities to participate in the first ever Colombia Car Free Day. The GITE created a tool-kit to assist cities in preparing a Car Free Day and worked with participating cities to plan their events. These activities have created renewed interest in the use of Car Free Days in Colombia and a number of workshops have been held by the Colombian Ministry for Environment to keep the dialog moving. The Ministry has also pledged to continue working for increased participation in next year's now annual Colombia Car Free Day.
The GITE also worked with the City of Fremantle, Western Australia to organize a Car Free Day and Practicum for the Australia and New Zealand continent. The Practicum was held 8-10 May 2002 with the Car Free Day held on Thursday 9 May. Although not as extensive as Bogotá's Car Free Day, Fremantle's event has attracted much attention and promises to be an instructive experience for Australia's heavily car-dependant society.
The GITE is currently seeking partnerships to continue the series.
Click on
UN Car Free Days to learn more about the series and the Bogota Workshop..