Changing perceptions of climate change in Latin America

UCL Consultants negotiates partnership with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to help Peru develop a low carbon transport strategy.

Climate change is reckoned by many to be the single most pressing problem facing mankind. Greater use of public transport, effected by taking more cars off of the road, is often cited as one part of the solution in reducing harmful emissions.

However, in Peru, where the second largest source of emissions (after deforestation) is energy, of which the main contributing sector is transportation with eight per cent of national emissions, a business-as-usual transport sector scenario shows these are estimated to grow 700% by 2040, compared to 2000 levels.

Shifting policy, shifting political will

Professor Nick Tyler, Chadwick Professor of Civil Engineering, a world-renowned expert on the subject, is working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to create a paradigm shift in national policy and political will in Peru, towards climate change generally and the impact of the country's transport sector specifically.

Nick's involvement was successfully negotiated by UCL Consultants, despite the number of organisations involved, and the usual complexities that arise when there's an international dimension to a project - such as time, language and cultural differences.

Nick's work will drive the development of a Transport NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions). This is a set of policies and actions to be implemented by the Ministry of Transport in Peru in relation to a low carbon transport strategy. However, this is not all the Transport NAMA will help to achieve. Other benefits include:

• building on the initial measures the previous Peruvian government developed and ensuring that the new administration has the necessary skills to implement it
• feeding into Peru's existing long-term mitigation action project
• considering specific measures for land use planning aimed at sustainable transport, as it is envisaged that special environmental and economic zones might be identified across the country.

UCL Consultants Mark Sedgwick said of this important initiative: "I'm delighted to have been able to facilitate, from a contractual perspective, a project with genuine impact on governmental policy in Peru and, quite possibly, globally too."

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