What the UN Decade of Sustainable Transport means, and why it matters
- Kelsey Miklavcic
- Dec 12, 2025
- 1 min read
Around the world, transportation infrastructure connects people and drives economies. But when poorly planned, it fragments habitats, increases emissions, and weakens resilience. And right now, we’re living in the most explosive era of infrastructure expansion in human history.
By Evan Freund
Published onDecember 10, 2025
The United Nations (UN) has launched the first-ever Decade of Sustainable Transport (2026–2035), a global effort to accelerate progress toward more sustainable, resilient transportation systems.
Why focus on sustainable transport?
The UN Decade of Sustainable Transport is an opportunity to elevate transport’s role in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals—17 interconnected global goals set by the UN—and to encourage concrete, coordinated action across countries and sectors. As part of the launch, the UN invited organizations to submit voluntary Sustainable Transport Action Commitments—tangible actions that can help shift global practices.
WWF and partners have joined this effort by submitting a voluntary commitment focused on considering biodiversity as part of transportation infrastructure. Our aim is to mainstream biodiversity into early-stage planning and development to shift how decisions are made long before projects break ground.
WWF submitted this commitment in partnership with the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. The commitment was endorsed by the International Road Federation, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure, and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation.
