Public budgets for international transport cooperation are under growing pressure. The United Kingdom is reducing its international climate finance by roughly half over 2026–2029 compared with the previous period, and Germany and several other traditional donors are cutting official development assistance too, just as the Paris Agreement calls for a rapid, large-scale transformation of the transport sector. This session argues that scarcity can also be a catalyst: when public money is tight, donors and implementers have a stronger incentive to coordinate, co-finance and innovate rather than duplicate effort. Drawing on real examples, from regional IKI programmes that are implemented by consortia, to partnerships such as MobiliseYourCity, the Transport Data Commons Initiative and the GCF co-financed E-Motion programme, the session first asks implementers (GIZ, UNEP, AFD) what has worked in practice, then puts these examples to donors (BMUKN, FCDO, DG INTPA, GCF) in a panel discussion on what it would take to turn coordination into genuine, resource-efficient alliances.
