Keeping Climate Change, Solutions on Track The Role of Rail

Transport brings enormous benefits to society through access and mobility, but it also has many external costs, including its contribution to climate change. Transport has a key role to play within solutions to climate change as current transport structures are responsible for extreme pressures on energy resources and ecosystems through a dependence on fossil fuels. Rail presents a low carbon mode of transport, and continued energy efficiency improvements and increases in modal shift to rail from road and air are crucial to support the transition to low carbon mobility. The technological and operational developments in rail, financial investments from international funds and governments, and the commitment of rail operators demonstrate not only the current status of rail, but more importantly the potential for rail to contribute to global emissions reductions in 2010 and beyond. Indeed the rail sector is ready to be part of the solution to climate change; the UIC Declaration on Sustainable Mobility and Transport (attached at the end of this document) outlines this commitment.