Context
The Government of Peru developed the Sustainable Urban Transport (SUT) project to halt the trend towards urban sprawl dominated by cars and afflicted by serious traffic jams, poor road safety, and low air quality.
Goals and approach to transformational change
The project rested on two building blocks: high-quality public transport provision and vehicle fleet optimisation. Progress in these areas required several changes: 1) a better policy framework (e.g., fuel economy standards); 2) additional infrastructure (e.g., metro lines, cycle lanes); and 3) a strong institutional set-up (e.g., dedicated transport authority for Lima/Callao).
A policy matrix drove this vision through, integrating the partners’ common agenda in a structured way to allow rigorous transformation. It consisted of six major approaches to emission reduction: 1) integrated mass public transit system in the metropolitan area of Lima; 2) non-motorised transport; 3) institutional set-up for urban transport management; 4) control and mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and local pollutants from motor vehicles; 5) modernisation of the public transport motor vehicle fleet; and 6) support to local authorities on sustainable urban transport.
Components and support mechanisms
The project “Peru – Sustainable Urban Transport” (also known as TRANSPerú) was essential to successfully implementing mitigation action, as it created a solid basis for follow-up measures by designing and driving through key structural change. It provided closely linked financial and technical support in three areas:
- Coordination: steering committee coordination with donors as well as between institutions (GIZ / KfW acted as Technical Secretariat);
- Mitigation: implementation of selected points in the policy matrix at national and sub-national level;
- Measurement, reporting and verification (MRV): setting up the MRV system in collaboration with other relevant institutions.
Long-term impact
The project intervention resulted in reduced greenhouse gas emissions (direct and indirect) amounting to 520,000 tCO2e. It directly benefitted 490,000 people. The potential for transformational change, measured by the degree to which the supported activities catalyse impacts, was rated at 4. Additionally, the project mobilised EUR 1,373,000 public finance for carbon-neutral investment and development, and EUR 800,000,000 of private finance for the same purpose.
