The 20th UIC Environment, Energy & Sustainability (EES) Platform met at UIC HQ in Paris on 5 April 2017. UIC presented the latest sustainability activities, proposals for opt-in 2018 and a number of items for information.
The meeting started with an introduction and welcome by Jean-Pierre Loubinoux (UIC CEO) and Willy Bontinck (SNCB & Platform Chair).
Last time the EES group met was during the Sustainability Conference in Vienna in October 2016 and Jean-Pierre Loubinoux emphasised the success of the event as well as the growing awareness of the importance of sustainable transport as a key driver for social and economic development and peace. Mr Loubinoux added that the publication in October 2016 of the final report of the High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport as well as the participation of UIC in the first Sustainable Transport Conference in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan last November had been great occasions to advocate the role of rail as the backbone of sustainable transport. UIC is still liaising with the new UN Secretary General Antonio Guteres to sustain momentum on sustainable transport.
An update of each of the expert networks was then conducted along with the political update of CER provided by Ethem Pekin, Senior Environmental Economist at CER.
The unit proposed four new projects for Opt-In – three in Europe and one in Asia:
- Best Practices Energy workshops (Europe)
- Noise Technical Advice to the European Union
- UIC Leaflet 930
- Best Practices Energy workshops (Asia)
Two new projects for the global budget were also proposed:
- Door to door mobility
- Clean air rail
The EES platform was the opportunity to discuss future plans for COP23 under the Fiji Presidency taking place in Bonn in November 2017, and gave the chance to the Members of the platform to learn more about the Paris Process on Mobility and Climate (PPMC) and comment on the global macro-roadmap on “An Actionable vision of the decarbonisation of transport”.
The EES platform gave the occasion to renew invitations to the RailAdapt workshops to be held in 2017, in London in April and in Beijing in June.
