The UAE continues to make strides towards achieving its 2050 net zero goals, initiatives ranging from shifting to low-carbon energy to adopting green transportation methods as the country formulates specific green measures and timetables to fulfil its goals.
Undoubtedly, transportation has significantly contributed to elevating the level of air pollution which has consequentially resulted in a mounting concern about the detrimental effect of transportation on the environment and social sustainability.
Global warming and modern transportation go hand in hand. The life-changing advances that resulted in new modes of travel are the same technologies that have contributed to pollution.
The challenge is to promote healthy and sustainable transport alternatives to prevent the negative effects of transport systems on human health. An important way to do this is to ensure that health issues are clearly on the agenda when transport plans are being formulated especially at the design stage of any sustainable infrastructure which is of vital importance in rural and urban areas. Similar to sustainable developments, which are being designed to be more resource-efficient and longer lasting, there are also methods to build roadways to be sustainable, resilient, and benefit the surrounding community and ecosystem.
This includes integrating land-use and transport planning which both are key in enabling activity to help reverse the trend toward automobile-based urban sprawl by starting with what is called a “green infrastructure”.
Green infrastructure should integrate health, environment and other social concerns which requires high-level commitment to intersectoral cooperation, from the power grid to water management to traffic and transit that should be upgraded to support lower emissions and better air quality. In addition, infrastructure designs and urban landscaping should set the footprint for a diverse ecosystem, support urban farming, and green mobility.
GCC countries have directed their efforts towards adopting smart mobility technologies in logistics practices, transportation system efficiency and environmentally friendly urban mobility. This is where the retrofitting and redevelopment is crucial as it illustrates a new planning paradigm for sustainable transportation that incentivises communities to use environment-friendly and energy-efficient modes of transportation such as electric- and hybrid-powered vehicles, vehicle sharing, and micro-mobility such as scooters and bicycles.
The objective is to reduce the carbon footprint of transport, mitigate the negative effects of land uptake and fragmentation, and boost opportunities to better integrate land while keeping social, economic, and environmental sustainability at its core.
