Hong Kong, 8 August 2006 - In its Sustainable Mobility Project 2030 report, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development defines Sustainable Mobility as “the ability to meet the needs of society to move freely, gain access, communicate, trade and establish relationships without sacrificing other essential human or ecological values today and in the future.”

With half the population in developing countries projected to live in urban areas by 2030 and unprecedented freight levels due to growing world trade, huge new demands are created for mobility. The spectacular economic growth of China has been mirrored by the fastest growing motor vehicle fleet in the world: with over 6 millions vehicles produced per year, at the current rate of growth, China is poised to become the second largest market for motor vehicles in the world by 2030, second only to the United States.

Undeniably, increased mobility creates great economic prosperity across the region, lifting millions of people out of poverty and giving them access to better services, job opportunities and education, as well as ensuring fast and reliable freight of goods. At the same time it creates extreme social and environmental pressures: traffic explosion results in increased road congestion, growing noise nuisances, increased emissions of green house gases contributing to global warming, and harmful atmospheric pollutants leading to respiratory and heart diseases, record numbers of road accidents and injuries, etc.

Despite the growing burden imposed on the population in terms of public health and lost productivity, such “externalities” are difficult to quantify using traditional economic models. This explains why adequate responses to these problems are slow to measure up to the pace of growth. Hopefully the situation should become more tolerable in future, as Asian countries progressively align themselves toward cleaner fuels and emission standards and huge efforts are consented to improve transport infrastructure and safety.

Market forces tend to respond faster to more tangible metrics such as oil prices. Records prices of US$ 74 a barrel and beyond, are sending a message loud and clear: it is time to break our dependence on oil and look for alternatives. While governments across the region are tightening clean fuels and vehicles emissions targets, as well as passing sweeping alternative energy laws spurring investments and production capacities in renewable energy and bio-fuels, private companies are looking for leaner and cleaner mobility solutions: Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda were first to develop fuel-efficient Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) – Electric Hybrid car and are already working around the clock on the next generation of Fuel Cells (FC) and FC Hybrid powered vehicles, distribution giant Wall Mart is setting up networks of experts to tackle their critically important Global Logistics value initiative, and the list goes on…

Are these solutions truly sustainable?

Preserving access to equitable mobility opportunities will be one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Our modern economies rely on complex global logistics systems: fast moving goods and people are an integral part of today’s value creation chains. All over the world public and private operators are studying ways to improve the availability, reliability and safety of our transportation and logistics infrastructure, in view of meeting rising demand from domestic and global world trade, while lowering fuel costs and improving the industry’s resources efficiency and environmental footprint, through advanced standardization of storage and handling practices, sophisticated data acquisition and information systems, reverse supply chain analysis, etc.

Since the late 80s we have seen a very significant shift towards intangible value creation thanks to the power of Information and Communication Technologies. However virtual flows of capital, data and ideas cannot replace physical flows of people and tangible goods. Therefore safe and reliable transportation and logistics will remain high on the political and business agendas, as mounting fuel costs weigh heavily on global trade of commodities, goods and materials.

Everybody recognizes that mobility is an essential part of society. The global challenge for the shipping and transport industry is that transport needs to become: more efficient and equitable, as well as less dependent on non-renewable sources of energy, and less disruptive, both socially and environmentally, while still being affordable.

Current mobility trends however are unsustainable, which means that the growing worldwide demand for transportation cannot be met simply by expanding today’s means of transportation.

The complex challenges involved require not only an array of novel lean and clean technologies or sophisticated information systems and tools, but also a carefully engineered balance between economic growth, environmental improvement and social progress simultaneously.

Article by Christophe Bongars, Founder and Executive Director of SustainAsia Ltd and Vice Chair of the sustainable Development Committee, the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hong Kong.