Rethink transport

Today is World Sustainable Transport Day, a day that aims to recognise the importance of safe, affordable and accessible transport in terms of economic growth, environmental benefits, improving social welfare, and enhancing cross-border trade. A shift away from cars to a more sustainable transportation model is no longer a matter of simply saving time and less hassle for Pakistanis. While less traffic, proper parking, zebra crossings, and an abundance of transportation options would dramatically improve the nation’s quality of life, things have reached a point where these are the bonus points of sustainable transport. Moving away from private cars, bikes and rickety rickshaws and buses has quite literally become a matter of life and death for the country. This becomes apparent when one looks at the blanket of smog currently draped around Lahore and several other cities in Punjab. Both Lahore and Multan have logged an Air Quality Index (AQI) level of over 1000 in recent weeks, well over the ‘hazardous air’ threshold. Things got so bad that Covid-19-like measures had to be temporarily imposed in Lahore, with schools being closed and people being asked to remain indoors and wear masks outside. And it is not just Punjab that is suffering from this problem; Karachi too has been regularly featured among the top ten cities with the most polluted air.

Sadly, old smoke-belching vehicles are what most of our cash-strapped and inflation plagued population can afford. Cheap metros and buses and easily navigable bike paths and pedestrian walkways are unavoidable for Pakistan to solve its transportation and pollution quandary. The UN estimates that living car-free can reduce one’s carbon footprint by 3.6 tonnes per year. One should also think of the savings on fuel the country could realise without having to depend on cars all the time. This is an issue where environmental and economic concerns are not in conflict. However, a sustainable transport infrastructure will be a hard goal to achieve, to say the least. A cursory glance at Pakistan’s chaotic, unplanned urban sprawl can be enough to make one give up on any hope of functioning bus stops and metro stations. There is also the sheer lack of public transport options, one our politicians have only belatedly begun to address and that too at a lacklustre pace. Our governments need to start expanding the quantity and quality of public transport options without delay. And it is important for these options to be based on clean technologies like electric vehicles in order for them to make a dent against air pollution.

This will require finances that we likely do not have, highlighting the need to engage with rich countries and multilateral organisations to help get the kind of transport options we need. This is, in fact, a moral imperative for rich nations that have polluted the most historically and used the Global South as a dumping ground for both industrial activities and machines that pollute more. This unequal relationship needs to change but the rich countries are dragging their feet. The paltry $300 billion a year pledge made at COP29 is grossly insufficient to cover the climate adaptation and resilience needs of poorer countries. The rich world should remember that pollution does not recognise any human-made borders and the environmental problems of the Global South will have consequences for them too.