75 Years of ITC: “Connecting Countries & Driving Sustainable Mobility”
From 21 to 25 February, Ministers and transport Leaders from around the world came together for the UNECE Inland Transport Committee (ITC), under the theme “75 Years of Inland Transport Committee: Connecting Countries and Driving Sustainable Mobility”. In fact, this 84th plenary session of the Internal Transport Committee (Geneva, 22-25 February 2022) celebrated its 75th anniversary.
The Inland Transport Committee, established in 1947, is the highest political body of the UNECE in the field of transport. Over the past 75 years, together with its subsidiary bodies, it has provided a unique intergovernmental forum where countries come together to forge instruments for economic cooperation and adopt international legal instruments on inland transport.
At the ministerial session on 22 February, participants adopted the resolution on “Ushering in a decade of delivery for sustainable inland transport and sustainable development” and discussed on the ITC’s past achievements, current performance and future trajectory, highlighting its evolution and underlying its future potential.
During the VIP lunch break, the president of CITA – G. Müller could address some words to the distinguished guests underlining the need for reliable vehicle data.
“Data are essential to ensure that only good used vehicles are shipped, in international trade for example. Furthermore, these data are instrumental to the recipient countries to verify compliance with the requirements. A solution that networks registrars must be set up to ensure reliability on an IT platform. And reliable data is also crucial for the development of automated vehicles. Some levels of autonomous driving are already available in some markets and this requires access to vehicle data which today is controlled exclusively by vehicle manufacturers“, he declared.
The ITC week also included side-events as the Global Road Safety Film Festival, the high-profile exchanges on safer and cleaner used cars for Africa; and meeting on automated and autonomous vehicles, connectivity and e-mobility; and Euro-Asian transport connectivity.
On 21 February, CITA actively participated in the “Safer and Cleaner Used Vehicles for Africa” meeting represented by its Executive Director E. Fernández.
This high-level side event was organized by UNECE together with UNEP to explore the advantages and challenges of ensuring access for low- and middle-income countries to safer and cleaner used vehicles that contribute to the sustainable development of countries and cities around the world.
The meeting was build on lessons learned from a successful United Nations Road Safety Fund project on used cars jointly implemented by UNEP and UNECE, where CITA participates in the activity by providing its experience and knowledge on whole-life vehicle compliance in general and vehicle inspection. The side event contributed to a better understanding of the role of used vehicles in meeting national, regional and global goals, including those stemming from the Sustainable Development Goals, the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and its Global Plan of Action, and the Paris Climate Agreement.