Global
01 August 2019 - 31 March 2023
Green Freight project aims to provide strategies and technical solutions to the decision-making agencies at the national, regional/local level to develop freight transport in India in a climate friendly and efficient manner and support the India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Freight sector in India is inefficient and the logistics cost is estimated at 14% of the GDP, far higher than observed in most of the developed countries, stands at 10% of the GDP. Transportation and inventory costs account for more than 90 percent of logistics costs. With rising income levels, rapidly growing e-commerce sector and a projected GDP growth of 7 to 8%, the demand for goods movement is expected to reach 15.6 trillion tonne-km by 2050. As per 2021 estimates, 71% of goods are carried by road, 18% by railways and rest by pipeline, waterways and airways (NITI Aayog and RMI India). Trucks are the largest energy consumer, using an estimated 1.3 EJ in 2020, with over 70% of all energy used to transport freight and is the fastest growing segment in freight transport energy use, doubling since 2010 (International Transport Forum (ITF), 2021).
India is therefore faced with the challenge of disproportionately large traffic volumes and high energy consumption, making freight transport as one of the sectors with highest potential for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other climate-relevant pollutants. The Green Freight project aims to support national and state-level partners in making the Indian freight and logistics sector climate-friendly and efficient, thereby contributing to the implementation of Indian NDCs.
The project advises the implementing partner Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), Govt. of India in setting up coordination and monitoring mechanisms for the National Logistics Policy, as well as relevant national authorities responsible for the freight sector in the development of climate-friendly standards and regulations. Measures for improved logistics management and the introduction of climate-friendly technologies will be implemented in selected regions. To ensure the sustainable implementation of national strategies and the measures tested, the competences of state level authorities, as well as private logistics companies will be strengthened. At the same time, the partners will be supported at national and state level in setting up monitoring systems for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The project will undertake the following activities
The project will also undertake the following activities jointly with other projects in the Transport WG:
The project aims to benefit the following beneficiaries:
Know your carbon savings: Rail Green Points initiative by Indian Railways
On 1st April 2022, Indian Railways launched “Rail Green Point” (RGP) initiative i.e. it will issue certificate to its freight customers on carbon savings that they have done by using railways as a medium of transport. This is an effort to motivate freight customers to transport more goods by rail, by making them aware of how many carbon emissions they have saved by opting to transport by rail than by road.
Hence, whenever a customer registers a demand online for railway wagons, they will receive a pop-up message thanking them for choosing to transport by Indian Railways and receive details of the expected saving of carbon emissions, called RGP. The RGPs are printed on electronic Railway Receipts (RRs), an RGP account of the registered freight customers is maintained, customers also get an email informing them about the RGP’s they have earned, and they can also download monthly or annual RGP certificates which may be used in their annual reports. Since the launch of the initiative, the Indian Railways have reported a cumulative saving of 11.05 million tonnes CO2*.
The methodology used for calculating RGP saving is derived from the “Freight GreenhouseGas Calculator” developed by Logistics Division, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India under Indo-German development cooperation project ‘Climate Friendly Freight Transport in India (Green Freight).
*number calculated as on 24th August 2022.
Awareness Building and Push towards Railways as a Sustainable Mode
City Logistics Plan: An initiative by Centre and States to improve city freight efficiencies for ease of doing business and achieve net zero carbon emission targets by 2070
In the wake of national consultative meeting on Freight Smart Cities held on July 2nd, 2021, several states came ahead and expressed their interest to improve city freight efficiencies by preparation a City Logistics Plan*.
*The City Logistics Plan is envisaged as a strategic plan designed to adequately address the urban freight mobility needs of the city’s population and businesses and their surroundings so as to achieve an economic growth together with better quality of life and the environment. The exercise shall identify the main needs, plan and evaluate the possible solutions for urban freight and logistics in and around the city. To ensure city mobility needs are served as a whole, the plan after completion will be integrated with the city’s Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) and other logistics plans at the state and national level: the State Logistics Plan and the Gati Shakti National Master Plan.
The central government, under Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment 2022-23 of Government of India [F. No. 44(1)/PF-S/2022-23(CAPEX)] has extended support to each state, by providing a financial assistance for developing the City Logistics Plans. With this step, a number of cities have showed willingness to participate in the initiative and develop the strategic plan in a more efficient and inclusive manner.
Central Government’s Support to States for Preparing City Logistics Plan
India
January 2019 - April 2024
Indonesia
Thailand
Indonesia
Thailand
Indonesia
Thailand
Thailand
Bangkok suffers from severe air pollution (PM2.5), with especially high pollution values during November 2019 to March 2020 and 72 per cent of these emissions are caused by the transport sector – particularly by diesel vehicles. Thailand, supported by the GIZ’s facilitating the development of ambitious transport mitigation action plans (TRANSfer III) project, will take action on ambient air pollution and climate change by implementing the Bangkok Clean Air Zone. In order to gain first-hand experience on Low Emission Zones and Congestion Charging, the GIZ TRANSfer project organised a study tour to Berlin and London in February 2020. TRANSfer will be supporting the Thai Transport Ministry and the Bangkok City Administration in the next steps of designing the Clean Air Zone for Bangkok and driving the bus network reform in the Thai Clean Mobility Programme
“Environmental problems and climate change are a global agenda and a concern to everyone. Thailand realises this and intends to tackle these problems seriously. A major take away from this trip is the lesson learnt and the idea of implementing congestion charging in the area of Bangkok, we must use the momentum of air pollution crisis, particularly PM 2.5 and accompany its implementation with the improvement of public bus services and non-motorised transport and also other transport demand management measures.”
Transport and Climate Change Week or TCC Week was first held in 2017 by GIZ to bring together experts and decision-makers from around the world and to facilitate knowledge sharing and networking for a better future of transport. This year, the 4th TCCW was held from 21 – 25 June 2021 via a new digital platform and a virtual conference room to allow for activities from Berlin and other different time zones because of the continuing pandemic situation. The programme allowed the participants to build capacities, to establish relations and to network with peers, partners and experts. The programme of the TCC Week 2021 covered a wide range of topics and aspects related to sustainable transport including the linkage between transport to other broader topics like post-pandemic recovery, disaster and gender issues.
The Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP) under the Thai Ministry of Transport participated in TCC Week through the preparation of country updates. Mr. Athibhu Chitranukroh, Director to the Bureau of Planning and Acting Director to the Bureau of Safety Planning, OTP, provided a comprehensive overview of the current transport situation in Thailand, underlining impacts from the pandemic, highlighting ongoing projects and cooperation, revealing future expectations and emphasising the commitment to move Thailand towards more sustainable transportation.
“When we get past this crisis, we cannot go back to the world as it was before, we must not forget our responsibilities in fighting climate change and Thailand takes this issue very seriously. Therefore, we are looking forward to continuing the excellent collaboration between Thailand and Germany targeting sustainable transport development.”
Indonesia , Thailand
Indonesia: 2017-2021
Thailand: 01 January 2017 – 31 December 2022
Indonesia
The project Climate Smart Cities looks at implementing climate friendly measures in the cities of Kochi, Coimbatore and Bhubaneswar. The project focuses in the areas of Solidwaste management, Construction and Demolition waste management, Urban Green cover, Green buildings and Stormwater management. The project also looks are capacity development as one of the key measures. The project undertook trainings in the fields of Stormwater Management, C&D waste Management, Urban Green cover and Green Buildings. The trainings with be further upscaled to other cities through training institutes. C&D waste training has already been upscaled further. Training on GHG Monitoring mechanism is also planned under the project. The project is being implemented with NIUA, Difu and TU Berlin as implementing partners.
The project also supported and had been instrumental in development of the ClimateSmart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2019 with MoHUA. CSCAF is one of its kind assessments which assess the 100 smart cities of the GoI on 28 indicators under 5 sectors. The CSCAF is now in its second phase and GIZ is the strategical partner.
Construction and Demolition(C&D) Waste Management, Stormwater Management, Municipal Solidwaste Management, Urban Green Spaces, Green Buildings
Municipal Corporation, City officials, General public, Training Institutes
Cities while being the engines of growth are also the biggest consumers of energy, and at risk due to the density of human population and the impacts of climate change. ClimateSmart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) is a first-of-its-kind public assessment framework on climate relevant parameters launched by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India under its Smart Cities Mission which assess the 100 Smart cities on various climate relevant parameters. The assessment framework has 28 indicators spread across 5 sectors including green building, Green spaces, Solidwaste management and stormwater management. GIZ Climate Smart cities programmes was strategic partner to MOHUA for development of the framework and has been instrumental in development of the Indicators within the framework. The project supported the ministry in development of Climate Alliance which includes agencies working in the Climate change domain. CSC project also undertook trainings for ULBs and then supported MOHUA in finally rolling out of the framework. The framework in now in its second phase and will be an annual assessment of cities
Training and capacity building is the key to make sure that the activites that we do on round is then further take forwards and is sustained. GIZ Climate Smart citie programme organized 4 trainings on the topics of C&D waste management, Urban Green cover , Green Building and Urban Green spaces. The first training on C&D waste management was a physical training and then it was a challenge in front of the project to plan for a vritual training due to the pandemic as all the contents were planned for a physical training. The project successfully conducted 3 virtual trainings aon Urban Green cover, Green Building and Stormwater management. The project also conducted an upscaling training on C&D waste management which was conducted by one of the instates identified under the project
India
01 June 2018 - 30 November 2022
The NDC – Transport Initiative for Asia aims to facilitate a paradigm shift to zero-emission transport across China, India, Viet Nam and further Asian countries. The programme’s mission is to provide policy and technical support for our partner countries and around the Asian region to shift the transportation paradigm and decarbonize mobility for every person, in every sector.
The China component supports in the development of a transport GHG and air pollutants double peaking strategy, providing a technical support platform and improving modelling capacity.
The India component supports the development of a stakeholder platform with the capacity to formulate pathways on decarbonising transport in India and technical assistance to improve policy and procurement frameworks for EVs and charging infrastructure.
The Vietnam component is supporting the Ministry of Transport in developing and implementing their Monitoring Reporting Verification system related to climate change activities in the transport sector.
As a regional initiative the NDC-TIA shares knowledge at a regional and global level through events, media and publications related to designing and implementing long-term, multi-stakeholder strategies for decarbonizing transport.
The NDC Transport Initiative for Asia is a joint programme of seven organisations and is is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). Implementing organisations are GIZ, World Resources Institute (WRI), International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), International Transport Forum (ITF), Agora Verkehrswende (AGORA), Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT) Foundation and Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century e.V. (REN21).
The Asian population; Political decision makers on national and municipal level; Employees of the Ministries of Transport and Environment
China:
India:
Viet Nam:
Regional/Global:
China , India , Viet Nam
November 2019 - February 2024
To improve the preconditions for the sustainable use of biomass residues for power and heat production
The Climate Protection through Sustainable Bioenergy Markets in Viet Nam (BEM) project is playing a crucial role in supporting the Vietnamese Government in increasing the share of bioenergy in the country’s overall power mix. Set to run from 2019 until 2023, BEM aims at improving the preconditions for sustainable use of bioenergy for electricity and heat generation in Vietnam.
Key activities include supporting regulatory adjustment to planning and licensing biomass energy projects; improving the private sector’s capacities to develop biomass ventures and enhance financial institutions’ capacities to finance such ventures; and facilitating technology co-operation between Vietnamese and international enterprises, research institutions, and universities on the use of biomass for electricity and heat generation.
BEM is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The project is implemented by the Electricity and Renewable Energy Authority (EREA), which is a subordinate of Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, which is a federal enterprise supporting the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development.
Policy makers, local authorities, private sector, financial institutions, research institutions, universities, experts
Legal and regulatory framework:
Capacity Development:
Technical cooperation:
Updated biomass energy project development guidelines: Lodestar for investors in Vietnam
Vietnam has a huge potential of biomass for energy generation, but investors need to deal with many government institutions for a variety of permits and licenses when pouring capital into this sector. Clearly and systematically summarizing the licensing process will make it easier for investors to participate in the market and develop projects.
As a part of the BMU-funded Climate Protection through Sustainable Bioenergy Markets in Viet Nam (BEM) project, the newly updated ‘Biomass energy project development guidelines’ handbook is expected to assist investors in reducing risks before and during their projects’ implementation. Following the document, they can better understand administrative procedures and processes in all stages of developing grid-connected biomass power projects – from the design, implementation, operation & maintenance, all the way to decommissioning.
The handbook was first introduced by GIZ and Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2017. The current revision is necessary as the government has issued new legal documents including the planning law and new biomass feed-in-tariffs and revised the Power Purchase Agreement for biomass power projects.
The handbook is expected to contribute to the country’s effective development of the renewable energy market and its climate change goals.
Virtual events bridge international and local developers in Vietnam’s bioenergy market
Business-to-business and matchmaking activities are an efficient method to connect companies, so the BMU-funded Climate Protection through Sustainable Bioenergy Market in Viet Nam (BEM) project originally planned the activities in-person. However, due to the COVID pandemic, the first bioenergy matchmaking events were shifted to innovative digital modes and the early results have been very promising despite technical challenges.
From March until November 2020, three virtual matchmaking events were organised for woody biomass stakeholders to receive overview information for the country’s sector development, including updates on the legal framework and support mechanisms.
Then, two sets of events were conducted to connect national project developers with international investors/developers: 1) all registered participants had five minutes to pitch their biomass projects/ideas/portfolio before they could select a suitable counterpart, and 2) one-to-one sessions for each pairing.
After the meeting, at least five site visits have been organised among local companies, and even more online exchanges have been conducted between local and international businesses. Notably, an overseas investor connected with a local developer and plans to travel to Vietnam to sign a memorandum of understanding as a substantial step toward project realization.
Viet Nam
01 April 2019 - 31 March 2023
The project supports its Chinese partners in enabling the transformation towards a low carbon economy, which is in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and advances reaching the goals of the 13th / 14th FYP (2016-2020 / 2021-2025) of Jiangsu province as well as the early peaking of its CO2 emissions. Supported by the provincial government, a sustainable network that persists beyond the duration of the project, will be established. It facilitates a long-term exchange between German and Chinese actors from industry, academia and politics as well as the discourse on coal phase-out. The project and the network will achieve sustainable capacity development through the introduction of methodological knowledge on how to build and manage knowledge networks and how to ensure financing. Furthermore, the necessary technical expertise required by stakeholders of the network will be provided. Results, best practices and proven impacts will contribute to the national and international dialogue on climate change.
Jiangsu provincial and local organizations and institutions who may apply sustainable climate change and energy policies.
Cities are the main source of carbon emissions, and urban energy consumption accounts for about 55% of China’s total energy consumption. Energy consumption in buildings and urban areas is a major part. City quarter or community is important part of the urban areas. In order to strengthen the pilot construction of low-carbon communities, NDRC issued the “Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission on Piloting Low Carbon Communities”, as well as compiled and published the “Guidelines for the Construction of Low Carbon Community Pilots” requiring all localities to carry out pilot work on low-carbon communities. GIZ’s project objectives in Jiangsu are in line with this requirement of NDRC. The core concept of the GIZ Jiangsu project is to use the innovative “Integrated Energy System” to promote low-carbon development in existing urban areas. To this end, the GIZ Jiangsu project organized experts from both China and Germany to compile the “Technical Guidelines for Low Carbon Renovation in Existing City Quarters” and prepared seminars for publicity and planned to select suitable demonstration projects in Jiangsu Province, in accordance with the guidelines.
“GIZ has maintained a good cooperative relationship with the Science and Technology Development Center of the Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. We have cooperated in many scientific research topics and projects on building energy efficiency. In particular, the urban-regional “integrated energy system” provided effective technical support for the Jiangsu project, and contributed to reduce carbon emissions per unit of GDP in Jiangsu Province during the twelfth and thirteenth Five-Year-Plan periods. Set a good example of Sino-German technical cooperation.” – Mr. Zhang Yuefeng, Chief Director of STDC
According to the instruction from HQ, the People’s Bank of Jiangsu Province must complete the task of reducing total energy consumption by 4% every year. In order to achieve this goal, the energy-saving renovation of the office buildings of each city branch is a key measure. GIZ Jiangsu Low-Carbon Development Project conducted a professional energy audit for the energy-saving renovation project of Zhenjiang Sub-branch and produced a conceptual plan for the energy-saving renovation as a design basis and a reference for mid- and long-term renovation. We also provided follow-up support so that this project will become a demonstration project for the energy-saving renovation of office buildings in a larger area of Jiangsu Province and even nationwide. We also made a suggested standard procedure for energy-saving renovation of office buildings for the PBC, which can provide a reference for the future renovation of other urban sub-branches of the PBC in Jiangsu Province.
“The repair and renovation project of Zhenjiang branch was completed in January 2016… From the comparison of the power consumption of 660,500 kWh in 2015 and 543,500 kWh in 2016, it can be seen that the overall energy-saving effects have exceeded the predetermined targets. Thanks to the strong support of the head office, GIZ and local government. The success of this renovation also provided a good example for all other branches of PBC.” – Mr. Zhong, director of infrastructure construction department, Jiangsu PBC
China
01 January 2019 - 28 February 2023
Indonesia
17 June 2014 - 31 December 2019
China
15 September 2017 - 15 September 2020
China
October 2017 - October 2021
