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GCC countries have ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and achieve sustainable development. To achieve these goals, they must focus on transportation and mobility as core elements. Most transportation in the region, particularly in cities, is dominated by privately-owned cars, leading to considerable CO2 emissions, traffic congestion, and economic costs. Several cities in the region are beginning to incorporate sustainable mobility, but they need a more comprehensive approach.
Specifically, GCC cities need to “invert the transport pyramid” by moving away as far as possible from privately-owned cars and toward public transport, and other mobility options. They should incentivize environment-friendly and energy-efficient modes such as electric- and hybrid-powered vehicles, vehicle sharing, and micromobility such as scooters and bicycles. We analyzed the potential value that GCC governments could unlock by implementing a comprehensive framework for sustainable mobility and estimate it to be approximately $400 billion over the next 20 years. Key sources of value include reduced spending on infrastructure, improved road safety, enhanced productivity, lower emissions, and higher energy efficiency.
Given the value at stake, GCC governments should put mobility at the center of their sustainability initiatives. The transportation sector contributes about one-fourth of CO2 emissions worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency. Therefore, GCC cities have an opportunity to transform transportation in order to achieve sustainability.
Today, private cars are the prevalent mode of transport in GCC cities, with private transport comprising on average 91 percent of all travel. The cost of owning a car in the GCC is lower than in many parts of the world because of subsidized fuel and virtually no disincentives, such as congestion charges or emission taxes. There are few fiscal incentives for people to switch to electric vehicles (EVs), and there is no large-scale development of the related infrastructure for EV charging stations. Shared micromobility options such as e-scooters are among the fastest growing transportation modes in the world, on track to surpass half a billion rides globally by 2021, growth that the GCC could emulate.
To reverse this trend, several GCC cities are investing heavily in public transportation including new metro, tram, and bus networks and system upgrades. However, governments should implement a comprehensive sustainable mobility framework based on five pillars:
First, a multi-modal, integrated, and robust public transport system is central to sustainable mobility systems. Governments should continue to invest in these systems, with predominantly to a fully electric fleet.
Second, governments should enable and encourage greater EV adoption for privately owned cars. In 2020, 3.2 million EVs were sold worldwide, up 43 percent over 2019, during a pandemic and an economic slowdown. Auto makers such as VW and GM, among others, are committing over $100 billion to an all-electric future.
Third, cities can move commuters more efficiently by reducing the reliance on personal vehicles and using shared mobility solutions to increase riders per vehicle. The market expansion of ride hailing players demonstrates that shared mobility works as a business model within a lightly-regulated market and improves asset utilization.
Fourth, micromobility solutions such as bike-sharing and e-scooters can give urban residents additional options. They can also increase public transport usage by addressing first-mile and last-mile connection challenges.
Fifth, governments can reduce the need for transportation through sustainable urban designs that use new living and community concepts to make vital goods and services available within walking distance from residential areas. Roshn and the Line at NEOM in Saudi Arabia are examples of this approach.
To support the five pillars, governments should also invest in foundational aspects. Infrastructure is one such aspect. They can, for example, repurpose existing roads to make them more pedestrian-friendly, and build charging stations to support EVs. Another is technology, which can aggregate data from various mobility modes, and advanced analytics powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning can generate insights into traffic patterns, consumer trends, and emissions performance. Smarter government policies can incentivize targeted behaviors or transportation modes mainly focusing on increasing the cost of car ownership and operation, and encouraging the move towards green and sustainable mobility options. Funding also matters. Cost-sharing initiatives between public and private entities can fund the transportation network of the future.
GCC countries have taken important steps to build sustainability into their national development. They must now apply this approach to the mobility sector. By “inverting the mobility pyramid,” governments can improve their sustainability performance, making GCC cities safer, healthier, and more economically relevant for today’s residents and future generations.
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