In 2018, UIC will participate in the 24th Conference of the Parties – COP – in Katowice, Poland. The Conference of the Parties will take place from 2 – 14 December. UIC is accredited by the United Nations as a recognised organisation, to participate in major global events such as COP.
A UIC delegation will join events from 6 – 8 December and promote UIC Member activities towards a more sustainable future and their commitments to fight climate change.
Prior to COP, UIC has contributed to the Talanoa Dialogue. An outcome of COP23, the Talanoa Dialogue gathers input from countries, NGOs and so on displaying and detailing their commitments to keep in line with the goal of the Paris Agreement and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). UIC organised an event recognised as actively contributing to the Talanoa Dialogue: the first UIC workshop on sustainable door-to-door solutions in Warsaw on 14 November 2018.
For COP24, UIC signed a tri-partite partnership agreement with UNFCCC – United Nations Climate Change and UITP – International Association of Public Transport.
Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General of UIC, acknowledged the signature of this partnership: “UIC is honoured to partner again with UNFCCC and UITP for this 24th Conference of the Parties. 2018 has been a challenging year in the fight against climate change, with record weather events worldwide and unprecedented challenges on the global political scene. Nevertheless 2018 has brought great opportunities and partnerships for the railway sector around innovation to lower rail’s environmental impact and door to door solutions to support modal shift. It also brought encouraging results as UIC Members happen to be well ahead of our time to answer great challenges faced by the industry such as lower greenhouse gas emissions. Let’s hope this 2018 Conference of the Parties will be a great opportunity to further increase rail attractiveness and show how rail is one of the most sustainable modes of transport.”
On 6 December UIC will actively contribute to the Transport Day, an initiative by the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT) and organised by CIVITAS – Cleaner and Better Transport in Cities and PPMC – Paris Process on Mobility and Climate. On that day UIC will co-organise a break-out session on adaptation to climate change with the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC) and Mr John Dora Consulting Ltd, advisor on resilience to weather and climate change. The full programme can be found here:
http://www.ppmc-transport.org/transportday2018/
On 7 December, UIC will participate in a UNFCCC Facebook Live video along with UITP in the morning and in the Marrakech Partnership event: the Global Climate Action Transport Action Event taking place on the afternoon of the 7th from 3 to 6pm. Following this UIC is co-hosting an official side-event with the International Transport Forum – ITF and UITP, from 6.30 to 8pm in room 5 at COP. The focus of the event will be on decarbonising transport.
Find out more about COP24 on the dedicated website:
http://www.cop24.katowice.eu/ and on the UNFCCC website: https://unfccc.int/
