Dear Colleagues,

You may or may not have heard of the OECD's EST (Environmentally Sustainable Transport) program, but let me tell you in a nutshell that over the last five years we have spent thousands of expert hours in the task of trying to figure out what indeed is meant by environmentally sustainable transportation how we might best, if at all, move toward it. Over these years of research and hands-on work by top scientific teams working in a number of countries, and confronted with a very wide range of transport and environmental situations, we have generated many volumes of technical reports (some 3500 pages) and recommendations, some of which have even stimulated political discussions, remedial programs, a certain media interest, and actual concrete reforms. The recent resolution by the EU Transport Ministerial Council of the EST definition clearly demonstrates this.

But we have not, as you know well, succeeded in turning around the basic situation of our still most unsustainable transportation systems, even in the ten countries that have been the most active participants in OECD's EST initiative. However, we understood from the outset that our goal had to be a more modest one: not to move in one swoop from a situation of gross unsustainability in these matters to a pristine world of full sustainability, health, safety, and social justice - but to see if we could contribute to defining the path to get us all moving TOWARD sustainability.

Based on our experience of these years we have a message both for this informal ad hoc international group and for the organizers of the Shell Foundation Workshop next week. Within the last several months, our international teams sat down and drew up a relatively simple and straight-forward set of guidelines for informing national governments - and these we think might now serve as a useful stepping stone for those involved in the Shell Foundation's efforts to find their own place in the world transport/environment scene. Our guidelines, which you will find on the next page of this note reflect what may be a rather broader view of what sustainable transportation is all about than may be being targeted by your group. We for instance are quite possibly a couple of notches less interested in "clean energy" options per se than you may eventually decide at an important part of the Shell Foundation's sustainable transport mandate. This is not to say that we consider progress in terms of new fuels and motors of no importance, but rather that we see them as just one part of a much broader, which will have to include a much broader range of options to counter rebound effects of using new technologies.

In addition to the EST Guidelines, I also attach here in a single page which summarizes both the general background to and the main content of the Ministerial Endorsement signed on 16 May by all Environment Ministers of the OECD's thirty member countries. This is, I might add, a very significant event, since we now for the first time have a commitment at a broad international level to begin to treat the transportation sector, not just in terms of technical issues of modal performance, but as a much broader systemic challenge, where issues of environment, safety, health and quality of life begin to be given much more priority in the decision process. (For more complete documentation on all these matters, I can refer you to our website at http://www.oecd.org/env/ccst/est/index.htm where they can freely be downloaded.)

To conclude: Our work in the area of sustainable transportation and the environment here at the OECD's Environment Directorate is but one of many ongoing international, national and local programs around the world working to move us toward better practices in the sector. We are pleased that the Shell Foundation is getting ready to join this international movement to do better in these matters, and we hope that our work and its lessons may serve you as well in orienting the surely most original and effective program that you are now preparing through this workshop to define and put in place.

Dr. Peter Wiederkehr, peter.wiederkehr@oecd.org
EST Program Director, OECD Environment Directorate, Paris

The EST Guidelines

• Guideline 1. Develop a long-term vision of a desirable transport future that is sustainable for environment and health and provides the benefits of mobility and access.
• Guideline 2. Assess long-term transport trends, considering all aspects of transport, their health and environmental impacts, and the economic and social implications of continuing with 'business as usual'.
• Guideline 3. Define health and environmental quality objectives based on health and environmental criteria, standards, and sustainability requirements.
• Guideline 4. Set quantified, sector-specific targets derived from the environmental and health quality objectives, and set target dates and milestones.
• Guideline 5. Identify strategies to achieve EST and combinations of measures to ensure technological enhancement and changes in transport activity.
• Guideline 6. Assess the social and economic implications of the vision, and ensure they are consistent with social and economic sustainability.
• Guideline 7. Construct packages of measures and instruments for reaching the milestones and targets of EST. Highlight 'win-win' strategies incorporating, in particular, technology policy, infrastructure investment, pricing, transport demand and traffic management, improvement of public transport, and encouragement of walking and cycling; capture synergies (e.g., those contributing to improved road safety) and avoid counteracting effects among instruments.
• Guideline 8. Develop an implementation plan that involves the well-phased application of packages of instruments capable of achieving EST taking into account local, regional, and national circumstances. Set a clear timetable and assign responsibilities for implementation. Assess whether proposed policies, plans, and programmes contribute to or counteract EST in transport and associated sectors using tools such as Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).
• Guideline 9. Set provisions for monitoring implementation and for public reporting on the EST strategy; use consistent, well-defined sustainable transport indicators to communicate the results; ensure follow-up action to adapt the strategy according to inputs received and new scientific evidence.
• Guideline 10. Build broad support and co-operation for implementing EST; involve concerned parties, ensure their active support and commitment, and enable broad public participation; raise public awareness and provide education programmes. Ensure that all actions are consistent with global responsibility for sustainable development.

EST Background & May 2001 Ministerial Decision

2. In 1998, Environment Ministers of OECD Member countries requested the OECD to develop guidelines for moving towards environmentally sustainable transport (EST). In response to this request, the OECD Working Group on Transport has developed a set of key guidelines for addressing the challenge of moving people and freight in an environmentally sustainable manner. These guidelines were endorsed by the OECD conference on "Environmentally Sustainable Transport: Future, Strategies and Best Practices" held in Vienna on 4-6 October 2000.

3. The EST Guidelines operationalise the Principles towards Sustainable Transportation and the Strategic Directions endorsed by the OECD Conference on Sustainable Transport held in Vancouver in March 1996. Furthermore, the EST Guidelines are part of the OECD's commitment to contribute to the implementation of major international conventions and other commitments, in particular the:

• Vienna Declaration of the UN ECE on Transport and Environment (1997); and

• 4. The EST Guidelines have been elaborated to assist governments at all levels in the development and implementation of strategies towards environmentally sustainable development. Effective implementation of the Guidelines requires strategies that accommodate the particular geographic and socio-economic conditions of countries or regions and are based on economic and environmental impact assessments. The EST Guidelines should be used in a dynamic fashion that takes into account the latest scientific, technological and economic developments. When starting an EST implementation process, concerned parties - transport, environment, health and other sectors, government, industry, academia, and NGOs, as well as the public-at-large - should be involved to ensure widespread awareness, understanding, commitment, and acceptance.

  Ministerial Decision

  Ministers, recognising the importance of ensuring that transport becomes environmentally sustainable, agree to:

  • Endorse the use of the EST Guidelines as a practical tool to guide the development and implementation of national environmentally sustainable transport strategies.

• Ministers further call upon the OECD to:
  • assist in the further development at the regional level of strategies and processes for implementation of the EST Guidelines, including in non-OECD countries;
  • provide analysis on the driving forces of transport growth and potential strategies for overcoming barriers to achieving EST, for example through the development of financial and business opportunities (e.g. for investment in new markets), and the removal of market and tax distortions;
  • further disseminate the EST concept, for example through media and other awareness-raising activities, and best practice benchmarking.

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