Northern Corridor Green Freight Strategy 2030 Dissemination Workshop

The Northern Corridor Secretariat in collaboration with UNEP and the Ministry of Works and Transport of Uganda organised a two-day sub-regional workshop on 25-26 March 2024 to disseminate the Northern Corridor Green Freight Strategy 2030. Under the theme “Harmonizing the Implementation Plan of Regional Green Freight Targets and Commitments”, more than 60 participants met in Kampala, Uganda to discuss the proposed 2030 strategy, and opportunities for greener freight in the sub-region. The workshop also discussed international trends towards the electrification of heavy-duty vehicles in the Global North. The Northern Corridor is a multimodal trade route linking the landlocked countries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda to the Kenyan maritime seaport of Mombasa. It is one of the busiest corridors in the continent facilitating a daily road freight movement of about 75,000 tonnes, from an average daily truck traffic of between 2000 and 3000 trucks and a fleet size of around 12,500 trucks.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Bageya Waiswa, who is the Chairperson of the Northern Corridor Executive Committee and the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Works and Transport, Uganda urged member states to commit and align their investment decisions toward sustainable transport policies, including green freight. Ms. Jane Akumu of UNEP highlighted the gains from greener freight strategies towards addressing the three triple planetary challenges of climate, pollution, and biodiversity loss. Mr. Omae Nyarandi the Executive Secretary of the Northern Corridor Secretariat presented the two key targets of the Green Freight Strategy 2030 as EV readiness by 2030 and a net-zero emission corridor by 2050.

The workshop, supported by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, UNEP and the ClimateWorks Foundation, brought together diverse stakeholders from the six countries including transporters associations, government representatives, academia, and civil society. Various UN agencies, and regional and international organisations including the East African Community Secretariat, the GIZ, TradeMark Africa, Küehne Foundation and Smart Freight Centre were also in attendance. Stakeholders gave recommendations to enrich the strategy and validated the same. The Strategy targets to improve fuel efficiency of freight transport by 10% by 2030 when compared to 2024 levels; reduce Particulate Matter, Black Carbon, and Oxides of nitrogen by 12% by 2030 when compared to 2024 levels; reduce CO2 emissions intensity by 10% by 2030 when compared to 2024 levels; conduct eco-driving training for 1000 drivers and enhance climate resilience of at least 2000 km of roads.