The ARA co-hosted Perth’s Transport Decarbonisation Summit in partnership with the Public Transport Association of Australia and New Zealand (PTAANZ), Roads Australia and Arup this week.

The summit built on the National Decarbonising Transport Summit held in Canberra last year and brought together key stakeholders from across WA’s transport infrastructure sector to identify opportunities to accelerate decarbonisation.

Public Transport Authority of WA Acting Managing Director Elwyn Gearon provided an overview of WA’s current transport and infrastructure policy landscape, with representatives of the state’s Department of Transport and Major Infrastructure, and Department of Water and Environmental Regulation also providing updates.

The speakers shared their insights and ambitions for the next stages of decarbonising transport in Perth and more widely across Western Australia, ahead of a workshop with participants to identify key actions that could support the sector’s progress towards net zero.

Opportunities identified included encouraging mode shift to sustainable modes such as rail, leveraging tools such as road user pricing and education to promote behavioural shifts; delivering measures to accelerate the transition to EVs and rollingstock; incentivising innovation; and opportunities to collaborate across the broader transport industry by identifying and integrating multimodal solutions.

A summary report detailing recommended actions from the summit will be released in the coming weeks.