Jakarta, 16 August 2021 – Twenty-four participants from the ASEAN Secretariat, the private sector, non-governmental organisations, research institutions, development agencies, and government agencies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, were given an overview on how to measure and monitor the performance of the transport sector in the ASEAN region. The half-day workshop, which took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, was organised by TCC. The idea behind the workshop was to support the implementation of the Kuala Lumpur Transport Strategic Plan (2021-2025; KLTSP), which calls for the development of a monitoring framework and a harmonised approach for developing indicators for transport sector energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The workshop served as a platform for discussing current challenges on developing sustainable transport indicators, and strategies to collect and analyse transport sector data
“It is necessary to have key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor strategic plans such as the KLTSP. Particularly when we look at the series of actions under it, we should think of responsive indicators to measure these actions”, argued a representative from Vietnam. Furthermore, she expressed her concern that developing countries such as Vietnam may have some examples of indicators for sustainable transport in place, but may not have sufficient resources to collect and monitor the indicators on a regular basis.
Dr. Axel Friedrich, an expert on vehicle inspection and standards, shared best practices with the participants on how the German government implemented strict data collection through an integrated emissions inventory that could capture the data needed to measure the impact of emission control strategies for the transport sector. “Even in Europe, not all countries could gather data with the same level of detail as Germany did – due to lack of resources in some European countries. But it is very important to start building the system and collecting the data right now”, noted Dr. Axel Friedrich.
Sudhir Gota, international expert and moderator of the discussion, then contributed to the discussion by mentioning the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), where countries such as Indonesia and other developing countries tend to use a top-down data approach, which analyses the energy demand by each sector to calculate emissions. He added that, on the other hand, the bottom-up framework, as opposed to top-down, shows the interconnection among parameters. He argued: “We can see which indicators need to be improved, from a system point of view, and this is allowed only by having bottom-up approaches.”
The workshop discussion also served as a take-home deliverable that can be shared with other agencies responsible in the sustainable transport and climate change issue, in general. This workshop was the first workshop that aimed to scope and gather preliminary information regarding how far the ASEAN countries have developed their sustainable transport indicators. As a follow-up to this workshop, the second workshop to discuss indicators for sustainable transport will be held in Malaysia, in November 2021.