Pan African Action Plan for Active Mobility: A Commitment Towards a Better Walking and Cycling Environment for People and Planet

United Nations 8 months ago

The Pan African Action Plan for Active Mobility (PAAPAM) is a comprehensive framework aimed at transforming mobility across Africa by prioritising the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and other non-motorized transport users. It was co-developed through extensive stakeholder engagement and is designed to support regional and sub-regional bodies, national and local governments and other stakeholders in prioritizing and investing in the needs of the billion people who walk and cycle every day in Africa. PAAPAM recognises how important it is to invest in walking and cycling and other non-motorized transport modes for the environment, air quality, health, road safety, and social equity, while ensuring no one is left behind in the mobility transition. By embedding PAAPAM’s multi-sectoral goals and actions into existing and new policies frameworks, and planning documents, African countries can address key challenges including road fatalities and injuries, pollution, climate change, congestion, etc; while at the same time designing and building more inclusive, vibrant, and equitable communities.
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layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 5 hours ago



The past quarter has marked a decisive turn for sustainable construction as regulatory and financial frameworks push towards measurable outcomes. The EU Deforestation Regulation now extends accountability across supply chains, compelling developers to verify the provenance of timber and other renewable building materials aligned with environmental sustainability in construction. The latest Environmental Performance Index exposes how far most nations remain from achieving net zero carbon and fully certifiable net zero Whole Life Carbon buildings, sharpening global focus on embodied carbon and the carbon footprint of construction.

Green finance guidance from the Green Finance Institute and WWF reinforces this transition by embedding biodiversity metrics and Whole Life Carbon Assessment into project reporting. Sustainable building design is now inextricably linked to fiduciary responsibility, with investors demanding verified lifecycle assessment data and credible environmental product declarations (EPDs). The incorporation of Life Cycle Cost appraisal and life cycle thinking in construction establishes a unified model where resource efficiency and circular construction strategies define investor confidence.

Operational resilience remains pivotal. Research on the inefficiencies of legacy financial systems underscores that decarbonising the built environment depends not only on low carbon design and low embodied carbon materials but also on digital workflows that enhance building lifecycle performance. The industry’s embrace of eco-design for buildings, Circular Economy in construction, and sustainable building practices signals a shift from aspiration to implementation.

Across markets, the environmental impact of construction and governance failures continue to test trust in green infrastructure. As scrutiny intensifies, sustainable design and carbon neutral construction are emerging as baselines rather than aspirations. The next phase of sustainable urban development will be defined by Whole Life Carbon transparency, robust BREEAM and BREEAM V7 frameworks, and quantifiable progress toward circular economy models that anchor low carbon building performance in verifiable data.

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