LEIPZIG, GERMANY – At the Annual Summit of the International Transport Forum (ITF) held in Leipzig this week, the Dominican Republic officially stepped into the co-presidency of a landmark global climate initiative: the Ministerial Declaration on “Towards Resilient and Low-Emission Transport Systems for People, Development and the Planet.”
First launched at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, this declaration unites nations around a coordinated global push to decarbonize the transport sector, an industry responsible for more than one-fifth of all global carbon dioxide emissions. The initiative fills a critical gap in global climate action, bringing together national governments, international organizations, and local stakeholders to align policy, investment, and innovation toward cleaner mobility systems.
Leading the Dominican delegation at the summit, Sara González Troncoso reaffirmed the Caribbean nation’s ambitious domestic climate targets for the transport sector. By 2035, the country has committed to cutting transport energy consumption by 25%, while ensuring that at least 33% of all energy used in the sector comes from renewable sources and sustainable biofuels. These targets position the Dominican Republic as a leading emerging economy in the transition to sustainable mobility.
As the new co-president of the initiative, the Dominican delegation presented its detailed 2026–2027 work roadmap to the ITF summit audience. Key priorities laid out in the plan include establishing a permanent secretariat to support the coalition’s daily operations, expanding membership to bring in more nations and stakeholder organizations from across the Global North and Global South, and working to ensure progress in low-emission transport is formally recognized and tracked in the 2028 UNFCCC Global Stocktake, the global assessment of climate action progress.
The appointment underscores the Dominican Republic’s growing global profile in sustainable mobility policy. The country is already a signatory to the Global Memorandum of Understanding for Zero-Emission Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles, and it is advancing transformative urban transport projects in its capital, Santo Domingo. Through partnerships with the Sustainable Urban Mobility Program and the global MobiliseYourCity platform, the nation is building clean bus rapid transit corridors, expanding its metro network, and developing new urban cable car systems to expand affordable, low-emission mobility for all residents.