Transport data is only as powerful as the trust and cooperation behind it. Political commitments to decarbonise transport are only as strong as the evidence that can hold them accountable, and building that evidence means connecting actors who don’t always know each other, but each hold a piece of the picture. This session brings together three different scales of that ecosystem. A government voice, Dominican Republic, presenting the Ministerial Declaration on Transport Decarbonization launched at COP30 on behalf of the eleven endorsing countries, shows why data is the infrastructure behind political promises: national commitments only carry weight if they can be tracked and reported. A regional voice, the Centro de Movilidad Sostenible de Latinoamérica (CMS), shows how data is collected on the ground across Latin America, and what it takes to turn that evidence into something operational and locally owned. And a thematic voice, the Global Alliance for Feminist Transport, shows that even solid regional data can still leave people out unless it is disaggregated: data quality is not only technical, but also about who gets counted and whose needs shape policy. Together, we ask: what does it take to build trust, shared evidence, and cooperation across contexts, so that data becomes not just information, but a lever for inclusive, implementable transport decarbonisation?
The Transport Data Commons (TDC), which organises this conversation, already offers a portal where these connections are put into practice, bringing together data, standards, and community in one open, accessible space. The TDC is made possible through the support of partners and funders such as Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK Government and the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Government of Germany, anchored in the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN).
