Accelerating Access to Low-Carbon Urban Mobility Solutions
ACCESS is a joint initiative of eight organisations working across six Latin American countries to transform urban transport through digitalisation, supporting cleaner mobility and smarter investments.
Transforming urban mobility systems
ACCESS seeks to generate transformative and immediate impact by using digitalisation to support the transition to more sustainable urban mobility systems. The programme is designed to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport while supporting cleaner, more efficient, and more inclusive mobility in cities across the region.
Objective
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from urban transport.
Impact
Deliver measurable emissions reductions and wider co-benefits compared with business as usual.
Approach
Use digitalisation to support Avoid–Shift–Improve strategies for people and freight movement.
Innovation
Deploy digital and data management solutions while drawing lessons from transport and other sectors.
ACCESS at a glance
Consortium organisations
Participating countries
Participating cities
Interconnected programme outputs
Where ACCESS works
Select a country to explore regional learning, city-level activities, pilots, and local policy support mechanisms.
Argentina
Active City Hubs & Pilots:
How ACCESS works
Structured around four outputs connecting city implementation, policy development, enabling frameworks, and regional learning.
Pilots and Implementation
Demonstrate and scale city-level pilot projects with active private sector participation. Tests practical digital and low-carbon solutions in real urban environments to generate transferable lessons.
Subnational Policies and Plans
Support cities and metropolitan areas to adopt inclusive and low-carbon mobility policies. Uses digitalisation to strengthen transport planning and embed innovative mobility approaches.
National Support Frameworks
Assist governments to develop regulations, financial commitments, and institutional environments that strengthen sustainable urban mobility and legal digital tools framework.
Regional Expansion
Share knowledge, tools, and capacity-building across the LAC region to upscale and replicate solutions through the Learning and Knowledge Gateway while addressing cross-cutting gender approaches.
Why ACCESS Matters
Latin America is the most urbanised region in the world, with more than 390 million people living in cities. The region’s urbanisation rate currently stands at 80% and is projected to rise to 89% by 2050.
As demand for both passenger and freight transport continues to grow, transport has become one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the region. In Latin America, the transport sector accounts for 35% of total greenhouse gas emissions, a higher share than in any other region of the world.
Transport is also a major source of urban pollution due to particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
Without action, current and projected transport patterns will continue to generate high levels of congestion, pollution, and road insecurity, affecting both drivers and pedestrians. At the same time, all ACCESS countries have made national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by decarbonising their transport sectors.
ACCESS responds to this challenge by helping cities and countries use digitalisation to support cleaner, safer, and more sustainable mobility systems.
Regional Context
More than 390 million people in the region live in cities.
Urbanisation is currently at 80% and is projected to reach 89% by 2050.
Transport accounts for 35% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Latin America.
All ACCESS countries have made commitments to decarbonise their transport sectors.
ACCESS and the Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable mobility is a cross-cutting enabler of sustainable development. By improving how people and goods move through cities, it can contribute to lower greenhouse-gas emissions and pollution, better access to jobs and essential services, stronger public transport and active mobility, and safer, healthier, and more inclusive urban environments.
ACCESS supports progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by using digitalisation to strengthen low-carbon urban mobility across Latin America.
Through city-level pilots, subnational strategies, national support frameworks, and regional knowledge exchange, the programme contributes most directly to:
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
By strengthening mobility data, digital tools, interoperable systems, and public-sector capacity for innovation.
Sustainable Cities and Communities
By supporting more inclusive, safe, accessible, and low-carbon urban mobility systems.
Climate Action
By using digitalisation to accelerate Avoid–Shift–Improve strategies and support measurable reductions in transport-related emissions.
Partnerships for the Goals
By bringing together governments, cities, development organisations, the private sector, civil society, and academia to share knowledge, build capacity, and replicate successful approaches.
Wider Contributions to Sustainable Development
ACCESS also supports wider development objectives related to health and well-being, gender equality, clean energy, reduced inequalities, responsible consumption and production, and effective institutions.
Gender-responsive and inclusive safeguards, digital readiness, responsible data governance, and capacity building help ensure that digital mobility solutions respond to local needs, protect public value, and generate knowledge that can be adapted across the region.
Key Facts: ACCESS and the SDGs
Sustainable mobility contributes to climate, urban, health, inclusion, and economic-access outcomes.
ACCESS aligns most directly with SDGs 9, 11, 13, and 17.
City pilots generate practical evidence for local and national policy development.
Gender-responsive and inclusive safeguards help ensure that digitalisation benefits diverse users.
Regional learning and partnerships support knowledge exchange, replication, and South-South cooperation.
Funding
This project is supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Government of Germany.
Within the Federal Government, the IKI is anchored in the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN). Selected individual projects are also the responsibility of the Federal Foreign Office (AA).
ACCESS receives a total contribution of up to €20 million.
This funding supports six national projects and one regional programme focused on accelerating low-carbon urban mobility solutions through digitalisation across Latin America.
At least 50% of the grant will be allocated to organisations based in the six participating countries.
This includes consortium partners, consultants, subcontractors, non-governmental organisations, universities, and other stakeholders.
ACCESS is designed and implemented in collaboration with governments at regional, national, and local levels, enabling public institutions to benefit directly from programme activities.