A paper by urban mobility experts drawn from the SOLUTIONS project has helped to shape discussions that resulted in the Johannesburg Declaration on EcoMobility in Cities, which Mpho Parks Tau, Executive Mayor of Johannesburg (South Africa), will present at COP21 this December. The paper, ‘Transferring sustainable transport and ecomobility solutions’, was one of five prepared for the EcoMobility Dialogues 2015, which brought together international, national and local decision-makers and experts to discuss the future of urban mobility and the need for innovation to meet the needs in developing cities.

The Declaration was adopted following the conclusion of the Dialogues, which were hosted at the EcoMobility World Festival 2015 held in Johannesburg. As part of the festival, the Johannesburg district of Sandton was closed to motorised traffic for one month. The SOLUTIONS paper presented results from the project so far, which identify important aspects of transferability. The project argued that targeted and structured approaches must be applied when helping cities take up sustainable urban mobility solutions, and that take-up cities need to commit to transformational change and be open for innovative solutions from different places of the world.

It said that supporters in the take-up process need to act demand-driven and adapt solutions to the specific policy context and that this needs to take into account the local context conditions in a city, the measures’ transferability to these conditions and the potential socio-economic benefits of the measure. This is an important step in preparing the implementation of innovative solutions among a wider set of cities and will be an important showcase for the transferability of innovative urban mobility measures. The SOLUTIONS paper is available to read online [PDF].

For more information on the EcoMobility Dialogues 2015, visit ecomobilityfestival.org.