Editor's note: Alexander Ayertey Odonkor is an economic consultant, chartered financial analyst and chartered economist with an in-depth understanding of the economic landscape of countries in Asia and Africa. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The second United Nations Global Sustainable Transport Conference was held in October to highlight the challenges, solutions and opportunities towards achieving sustainable transport worldwide. At the event, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China will set up a Global Innovation and Knowledge Center for Sustainable Transport. Through this platform, China will share its expertise and innovation with the world in an attempt to promote sustainable transportation worldwide. While this is a major contribution to accelerate transition to global sustainable transport, this attempt is however, one of many from China in recent years.

Around the globe, policymakers are leveraging technological innovation to transform the transport sector, progressively shifting away from fossil fuel consumption to clean energy to achieve sustainable mobility. While the mobility of people and goods is essential to development, pursuing sustainable mobility comes with greater economic, environmental and social gains as it creates an enabling environment to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Considered to be a key driver of greenhouse gas emissions, a complete transformation of the transport sector to attain sustainable mobility is closely related to accomplishing affordable and clean energy, building sustainable cities and communities, and advancing industry innovation and infrastructure, which are some of the SDGs – all critical to limiting global warming to preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, pursuing sustainable mobility is not for the faint-hearted, particularly as the populations of people in cities, the epicenter of global economic activity, are surging and the transport infrastructure in most of these cities is obsolete and does not meet the current demand as they were built many decades ago when extreme weather events were comparatively less.

As a result, policymakers worldwide are grappling with complex social and environmental challenges in their pursuit of sustainable mobility. However, amidst this adversity, China is trailblazing in this field, serving as the major driver of the world's sustainable transport transition and also sharing technical expertise and innovation with the rest of the world, which is commendable. A critical examination of the country's contribution towards achieving sustainable transport indicates that apart from the fact that China accounts for about 90 percent of the world's electric buses, trucks and almost all two- and three-wheelers as of July, the country has also installed 2.015 million public charging stations, representing the largest electric vehicle charging network in the world.

Furthermore, with almost 5 million new energy vehicles in China, which exceed half of the world's total, the country has produced 44 percent of the world's entire electric vehicles over the last decade. By dominating the global electric vehicle supply chain, which includes contributing 60 percent of the battery component manufacturing and commanding a whopping 80 percent of raw material refining, together with almost 500 world-class Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers that are competing for the top spot, China's exports and contribution in this field are the main drivers that underpin progress in the global sustainable transport transition.

Again, while China has the broadest model offering for electric vehicles, a strategy that is bolstering the sustainable transport transition as the vehicles are becoming increasingly accessible to people from all walks of life, the country is also promoting the use of bicycles, which is another means of transport that is economical for short distances, reduces congestion particularly in urban areas, environmentally friendly and offers many health benefits. 

As the world's largest exporter of bicycles, China is once again contributing considerably to improving access to affordable and clean transportation to the world. According to data from the China Bicycle Association, from January to September 2020 alone, China had exported more than 40 million bicycles. This quantity is almost four times the European Union's yearly production of bicycles.

So far, China's approach in transforming the transport sector to limit greenhouse gas emissions has been spot on. By providing the world with millions of bicycles and manufacturing a wide range of different electric vehicles to suit all forms of travel on roads, China is on course to reducing global carbon emissions. While available data reveal that the transport sector accounts for one-fifth of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, road travel alone contributes three-quarters of the total emissions from the transport sector – the largest share of the carbon emissions is produced by passenger vehicles such as buses and cars as they account for 45.1 percent whiles trucks carrying freight contribute 29.4 percent. The remaining proportion of carbon emissions from the transport sector is contributed by other forms of transport such as aviation, rail travel and freight and travels that convey oil, water and gas through pipeline as they account for 11.6 percent, 1 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. This detailed analysis of the transport sector shows that by contributing more than any other country in transforming road transport, which is by far the largest carbon emitter, China is hitting the nail on the head in the country's policy approach to boost global sustainable transport transition.

Again, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China's massive transport infrastructure project that is connecting Asia with Africa and Europe through land and maritime networks is advancing efforts towards sustainable mobility – this tremendous infrastructure investment is seeking to connect more than 60 percent of the world's population. By building roads, airports, railroads, ports, bridges and other relevant transport facilities, the BRI which is arguably the world's largest infrastructure project is filling the infrastructure gap in cities and rural areas across several regions as it is scaling up the required climate-resilient infrastructure needed to support sustainable transportation worldwide.

In a nutshell, China has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the country's people-centered approach to providing sustainable mobility transcends national or regional borders. This supports the argument that China's commitment is worthy of emulation and also requires the cooperation of all countries to build the much-needed climate-resilient and robust global sustainable transport sector that will prepare fertile social, economic and environmental grounds to achieve the SDGs and the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

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