2017 G7 Transport Ministers' Declaration

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G7 Transport Ministers Meeting:
Declaration of the Ministers

Cagliari, Italy, June 23, 2017
[pdf]

We, the G7 Ministers of Transport and the European Commissioner for Transport, reaffirm our commitment to fostering investment in high-quality Infrastructure as a key strategy to reignite and sustain economic growth. We recognize that investment in infrastructure can shape mobility patterns, can contribute to innovation, automation, productivity improvement and digital solutions for mobility, and can trigger economic, environmental and social benefits.

At a time when national economies are recovering from an unprecedented economic crisis, we are challenged to simultaneously maintain existing infrastructure and identify funding sources for new infrastructure investments. We recognize the importance of promoting well- planned, continuous and sufficient investment, focusing on effects on improved quality of life, improved productivity and economic growth (so-called "stock effects"). We emphasize the importance of providing adequate funding and financing for infrastructure development and maintenance by promoting effective and innovative means of leveraging investment.

Particular attention should be paid to ensuring sound planning to facilitate the selection of the most beneficial projects, generating the highest added value, based on cost-benefit analysis. We acknowledge that infrastructure planning should also consider longer-term socio- economic impacts, promote life-cycle approach and encourage efficient solutions, including intelligent reuse and maintenance of existing infrastructure. We further recognize the need to encourage and facilitate the involvement of private capital, and to reap the benefits of Private- Public Partnerships.

We also recognize that transport infrastructure can contribute to social well-being. It facilitates access to health and education services, and to employment opportunities. It can also enrich interpersonal exchange, enable better integration of people, cultures and ideas, promote equal access, and reduce the risk of exclusion from its benefits of segments of the population, including among others rural communities and urban peripheries.

We highlight the leadership of G7 countries in facilitating robust public participation in the infrastructure planning and development process. In this respect, we stress the importance of building public acceptance of infrastructure projects, of efficient administrative procedures and of streamlining the regulatory environment. We acknowledge the importance of stakeholders' and local communities' engagement and participation in the different phases of decision-making processes. We recognize that many of the most effective infrastructure projects with the most positive economic and social impacts are best achieved when local communities and employers work together with local and national decision-makers, and with investors, to reach shared solutions.

In order to learn from our respective experiences, we intend to establish a working group on infrastructure development to exchange best practices and innovative ideas on planning, funding, financing and implementing infrastructure projects with a view to making recommendations to the Ministers.

We further recognize the extraordinary opportunity that advanced technologies for vehicles and infrastructure offer, not only in improving road safety and environmentally-friendly mobility, but also in providing new transportation solutions that can benefit all segments of our populations. These systems hold great potential to promote equal access to transportation, and thereby improve their economic opportunities and personal independence. We reaffirm our commitment to seeking to make advanced technology accessible and usable by the aging population and people with disabilities and affordable to low-income users.

We intend to facilitate the development of these systems, and to working together to share approaches and best practices. We are also aware that these complex systems will raise many public policy considerations which we must address to ensure smoothest deployment with consumer acceptance and public confidence. We plan to share best practices in this regard as well.

Taking stock of the Leaders' intentions to strengthen the collaboration among competent Ministers on Next Production Revolution-enabling quality infrastructure – as recalled in Key Policy Priority 7, contained in their People-Centered Action Plan on Innovation Skills and Labor – we welcome the opportunity to promote collaboration on how to design appropriate policies among the relevant Ministries.

We recognize that data is fundamental for digitalization. Access to mobility data is an important pillar of a data infrastructure which can be highly beneficial for governmental and industrial bodies as well as for citizens. We encourage and support the availability of mobility data for traffic safety and intelligent transportation systems across all of society.

Strong cyber-security and data protection will help provide confidence in and adoption of automated driving systems. To that end, we encourage transport manufacturers, operators and intelligent transport systems service providers to follow relevant existing guidelines on cyber security and data protection. We also encourage public authorities, vehicle manufacturers, service providers, and cyber-security and privacy experts to assess, whether and to what extent the necessary data needed to enable service providers to develop services and applications, can be made available for the purpose of improving safety and traffic conditions and be used in ways that are consistent with consumers' cybersecurity and privacy interests. Further, we recognize the need for the timely development and regular updating of guidelines on cyber security and data protection, at the national, regional or international level, where appropriate.

To avoid possible rebound effects, such as a net increase in traffic and emissions, we encourage close cooperation among all relevant stakeholders and stress the need to integrate cooperative, connected and automated vehicles into sustainable mobility policies, including public transport and active modes, such as walking and cycling, and logistics.

The market potential of cooperative, connected and automated driving could lead to the creation of new jobs profiles. The profiles will require higher skills and digital literacy. Therefore, we recognize that we need to help ease this transition to strengthen public acceptance and fully realize the benefits that these technologies offer and we intend to carefully assess the needs for new skills and, where needed, to promote training schemes and appropriate awareness campaigns.

We intend to work together at the international level and to inform each other on the relevant developments of national or regional frameworks which affect wide deployment of cooperative, connected and automated driving.

Connected and automated vehicles are likely to lead to modifications in terms of security, safety, emissions reduction and time management while travelling on our roads. Important legal and ethical issues still need to be addressed: the former being related to the allocation of liabilities for accidents; the latter concerning the ethical choices that autonomous vehicles ought to make in emergency situations.

We reaffirm our commitment to seek to identify and remove potential barriers in existing regulations to the introduction of automated and connected driving technologies, as appropriate, at the domestic and international levels. We intend to continue to exchange information on research activities and data that are necessary to make well-informed decisions about well-designed future looking measures (e.g., guidance, and where appropriate harmonized regulations), based on publicly available sound science and evidence.

We, therefore, encourage the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations to continue to work on the fundamental technical principles, including appropriate performance metrics and test procedures for demonstrating the effectiveness and safety of these technologies and to focus activities on systems with higher levels of automation and to assess whether new categories should be defined in order to cover all kinds of automated driving systems.

We also call on the research Working Group on connected and automated vehicles that was established in Karuizawa to continue to cooperate and have a close and regular exchange of information in the area of research to validate the effectiveness of potential performance metrics and test procedures.

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Source: Official website of the Italian G7 Presidency

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