As part of its on-going efforts to promote sustainable transportation in the ASEAN region, TCC took part in the first Sustainable Energy & Technology Asia (SETA) exhibition and conference, which was held at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center (BITEC) on March 23-25, 2016.
Organised by the Thai Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Science & Technology and the Ministry of Transport, SETA aims to become an annual several-day event fostering knowledge sharing and networking between international, governmental, and industrial energy and technology experts. SETA hosted more than 80 booths showcasing the private and public sectors' advancements in the fields of sustainable energy and technology, and provided a platform for expert presentations to be held.
To ensure that the multi-faceted topics associated with SETA were comprehensively covered, presentations were grouped into four so-called "tracks". These were: 1) Energy Policy and Planning, 2) Electrical Systems Technology, 3) Transportation and Alternative Fuels, and 4) Sustainable Energy and Green Technology.
TCC contributed to SETA 2016 by not only providing up-to-date information on GIZ activities in the field of sustainable transport to interested booth visitors, but also by organising three different session under track 3, Transportation and Alternative Fuels, covering the major areas that the TCC project is working on in order to increase energy efficiency and climate change mitigation in the land transport sector.
Alex Koerner, GIZ-Consultant – who is currently supporting a fuel efficiency report on Thailand and Vietnam for TCC – gave an overview of common fuel economy policies implemented by different countries around the world. He stressed the importance of pursuing technology-neutral instruments to achieve the most efficient outcomes, and also argued that technology improvements can lead to less fuel consumption and more energy and CO2 savings.
After Mr. Sumit Pkhrei from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) presented the AMS Green Freight Initiative, Roland Haas, director of the Cities, Environment and Transport GIZ programme, clarified that there is significant potential for saving logistics costs in the ASEAN region. As such, TCC has been carrying out green freight activities in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. In particular, a new project on Sustainable Freight and Logistics Transport in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS), funded by the EU, supports small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in increasing their fuel efficiency, improving their safe-handling and accessing finance. Further, the project promotes truck labelling, green freight action plans and carbon footprinting.
Although two-wheelers, especially motorcycles, make up about half of the vehicle population in the ASEAN region, little policy attention is given to them. Malaysia-based GIZ consultant, Dr. Horizon Walker Gitano-Briggs – who is preparing a Stocktaking Report on Malaysia for TCC – discussed how two-wheelers consume much less fuel than cars and are thus more fuel efficient. Motorcycle-only infrastructure such as motorcycle lanes and overpasses in Malaysia further improve two-wheeler ridership safety.
The sessions provided interesting insights into the individual issues of fuel efficiency measures, green freight and two-wheelers, which lead to interesting discussions. TCC has just entered its second project phase (2016-2018), thus continuing to promote sustainable transport development in the ASEAN region.
For more information on SETA 2016, please visit their website.