OREANDA-NEWS. December 04, 2015. As heads of state gather for the COP21 climate talks in Paris, MasterCard and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) today announced a partnership to connect Chinese and global megacities in a first-of-a-kind ‘Mobility Management’ network.

With more than half the world’s population now living in cities, urban transportation is one of the key contributors to CO2 emissions globally. Drawing on technology and expertise from MasterCard, the C40 Mobility Management network will spearhead the sharing and activation of best practices to better integrate and optimize the various modes of public transportation available in a city.

“The Paris COP21 ushers in a new approach to global action on climate change in which cities and non-state actors have a major role to play. The C40-MasterCard partnership provides a compelling example of the innovative and collaborative work that cities and businesses are doing to help China, the U.S. and other nations reach – and exceed – aggressive GHG targets,” said C40 Chair, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes.

“Transport is crucial for cities to get right, as we have seen in Rio where we are delivering a massive expansion of public transport. C40’s partnership with MasterCard to launch a new network on ‘Mobility Management’ will help cities like Rio scale up their efforts.”

A recent C40 report has shown that roughly a third of C40 cities’ action is delivered through knowledge sharing. By working together to share best practices and technical expertise, the network partners and city governments will accelerate action that has the potential to reduce emissions, save cost and improve quality of life for citizens.

Mobility Management is a vital tool for resource-and time-constrained city governments. It can provide a cheaper and quicker way for cities to improve transport capacity, efficiency and accessibility than investing in new infrastructure, which can be expensive and time-consuming, and can neglect efficiencies within existing systems.

Mobility Management has already had a significant impact on a number of C40 member cities, including:

  • Milan, where the recent ‘Area C’ road pricing scheme has delivered reduction in traffic and improvements in air quality while increasing public transport speeds;
  • London, where the introduction of contactless transit ticketing has reduced costs and increased ridership, particularly from tourists;
  • San Francisco, where ‘SF Park’, a parking program with a responsive pricing mechanism, has reduced ‘cruising’ for parking by around 50 percent;
  • Paris, where a combination of holistic measures, including changes to parking policies and the introduction of a car sharing scheme in addition to cycling and public transport improvements has reduced vehicle miles travelled, and consequently emissions;
  • New York, which has seen a 2 percent rise in transit ridership by introducing the MTA Bus Time program.

Hany Fam, President of MasterCard Enterprise Partnerships, comments: “This new initiative is a great example of how public-private-partnerships can make significant improvements to transport systems in cities around the world, from higher productivity, development of new technologies and better air quality and associated health benefits.”

“The relationship will benefit from C40’s proven impact from other network programs and MasterCard’s technology and data analytics leadership around transit programs in global cities such as London and Chicago.”

Mark Watts, Executive Director of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, says: “With transportation currently accounting for over a quarter of final energy use, and with C40 cities currently emitting over 300 million tons of CO2 per year from transport alone, decisive action must be taken quickly. We firmly expect our work with MasterCard through the new Mobility Management network to play an important role.”

“By putting a particular focus on Chinese cities, the C40 Mobility Management network acknowledges the country’s rapid path to urbanization. The proven network methodology will ensure that lessons from cities around the world are translated to the Chinese context, while lessons from China are shared with other participating cities.”