People-centered Transport as climate action: SEA transport planners, advocates #MoveTogether for low-carbon and sustainable mobility
June 4, 2026
Last May 21-23, The Climate Reality Project Philippines, in partnership with the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), gathered transport planners and representatives across Asia to discuss best practices and pertinent issues surrounding sustainable mobility in the region.
Entitled, #MOVETOGETHER: Regional Exchange and Workshop on Sustainable Urban Mobility and Placemaking in Southeast Asia, the event was supported by the Clean Mobility Collective Southeast Asia (CMC SEA), TRANSCEND (Transformative Actions for Climate and Ecological Protection and Development) Project, and the Local Government of Antipolo City.
Throughout the three-day workshop, people-centered transport and placemaking were positioned as a powerful community building and climate action strategy. Placemaking is a collaborative practice of reimagining streets and public spaces into vibrant places that prioritize community and the environment; one that directly confronts the transport sector’s glaring influence on the climate crisis.
In her opening remarks, Climate Reality Philippines Branch Manager Aimee Oliveros, emphasized this point, stressing that the transport sector remains one of the major drivers of global warming due to its significant greenhouse gas emissions.
“Accelerating the equitable shift toward cleaner, more efficient mobility systems—through active transport, improved public transport, and electrification—has become not only an environmental priority but also an economic and resilience strategy for cities,” said Oliveros.
The workshop gathered together the winners of the 2025 Southeast Asia Mobility Awards (SEAMA) from Jakarta, Surabaya, and Semarang in Indonesia, Georgetown in Malaysia, and Quezon City and Iloilo City in the Philippines. Also in attendance are various Local Government Units (LGUs), representatives from National Government Agencies (NGAs) including the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD); as well as, transport advocates, and experts from the Clean Mobility Collective (CMC) which furthered this unique opportunity to expand regional collaboration and strengthen the growing network of mobility champions.
Winners of the 2025 Southeast Asia Mobility Awards (SEAMA) from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, take part in a knowledge exchange session on inclusive and people-centered mobility, day one of the workshop
Building on this, day one of the workshop focused on regional best practices on active and public transport, providing a cross-cultural space for participants to exchange real-world experiences, share policy and implementation lessons, as well as explore practical pathways toward more commuter-friendly, low-carbon, and inclusive urban mobility.
With inclusivity framed as a pre-requisite rather than an add-on, the discussions laid the groundwork for the succeeding days, which shifted to placemaking as a crucial complementary strategy for building community-centered public spaces. This carried into a Jane’s Walk, a free citizen-led walking conversation inspired by urbanist Jane Jacobs. In line with this year’s theme, “walking in STEP (Stories, Travels, Ecologies, Places), the activity was aimed at reconnecting people with their environments and communities. The same day also launched the Philippine Chapter of Women on the Move (WoTM), a collaborative space for women in Asia’s mobility sector.
“At the heart of it, our vision is pretty simple. We want cities where people can breathe clean air, move safely, and live in places where companies and decision-makers are accountable for their impact. Cities where transport systems don’t pollute or harm people and where both governments and the private sector prioritize people and the planet over profit,” said CMC SEA Coordinator, Arielle Celine Tabinga, who also works at ICSC as a Manager for Urban Development.
A paper in the sky
ICSC Board of Trustee and environmental activist Beau Baconguis aspires for safer and more sustainable roads in her welcome message
Leading the way, ICSC Board of Trustee, Beau Baconguis, set an inspirational yet urgent tone during day two of the workshop. She reminded participants how far the movement has come and how much further it must go. “Today, we know that Quezon City has now been moving in the direction that was only a dream for us three decades ago. It may have taken long, but we are slowly getting there. Now we are hearing stories from the rest of the region and in other parts of the world that are more people and ecology-centric, more inclusive,” Baconguis stressed.
Underscoring how urban mobility policies must account for climate change’s growing impact on transportation, Baconguis then posed the question, “are we doing enough to reverse or slow down planetary destruction? I believe we all know the answer and that is the reason for our coming together today. We are hopeful people.”
Participants were toured around selected streets in Antipolo City, as part of their placemaking and urban design improvement activities
To translate that hope into tangible action, participants visited P. Oliveros and Olalia Street in Antipolo City to ground the discussions in real-world application. The high-density streets shaped by rapid urbanization revealed firsthand how the absence of people-centered development affects safety, accessibility, and community life. Participants then brainstormed ways to improve mobility using placemaking principles, and presented their crafted ideas with Antipolo City Vice Mayor Roberto Andres “Randy” R. Puno Jr.
Drawing on these observations, participants from LGUs in the Philippines and Indonesia, were tasked with crafting proposals to transform their existing car-centric urban sites to ones that prioritize people’s transport needs through placemaking.
After two days of learning sessions and receiving feedback from assigned coaches from the Clean Mobility Collective, the LGUs presented improved proposals to a set of judges during a pitching challenge.
From these pitches, all shaped by a growing awareness on people-centered transport to address the impacts of mobility on people and the planet, the entry from Quezon City, as represented by Architect Irene Morales, won the challenge. Their proposal to convert Bagong Daan in barangay West Kamias into a safe, inclusive community space, was awarded with USD 1000 as seed funding.
Judges expressed high hopes for the winning team’s project, encouraging other participants to pursue their proposals, amid the mounting climate and transport challenges commuters face daily.
Quezon CIty wins the pitching challenge, taking home USD 1000 to kickstart their proposal to convert Bagong Daan to a community space
The pitching challenge was but a culmination of the participants’ learnings, following storytelling and world cafe sessions where speakers from across the region stressed important lessons and best practices that resonate on the ground.
Using placemaking as a platform for action and engagement, the sessions featured Chong Sue Yen of Commute Initiatives on transforming safer streets in Malaysia. She encouraged the participants to craft plans with the community, instead of just for them. Silpa Wairatpanij of the Thailand Walking and Cycling Institute Foundation narrated his experiences in making Thailand’s streets safe and for the people. Vũ Thục Khuyên of Think Playgrounds Social Enterprise shared how art was integrated in their campaigns in Viet Nam. Deliani Poetriayu Siregar of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) Southeast Asia focused on improving safety and connectivity around public transport in Indonesia. Ankit Bhargava of Sensing Local spotlighted the citizen-led revitalization of public spaces in Bengaluru, and Architect Irene Morales narrated how SPARK Maginhawa project turned the Quezon City hip street into a safer public space.
Participants and speakers alike collaborate in an activity proposing improvements in Antipolo City’s roads
“Placemaking is a really useful tool to translate policies in the sky into realities on the ground for people, so that decision makers and communities whose these decisions are actually impacted can come together,” said Chong Sue Yen, who also served as a speaker and coach during the workshop.
The muscle of the city
Across the sessions, a shared reality emerged. People-centered transport initiatives often fail due to lack of state support, minimal community engagement, or backlash when they disturb the urban design status quo.
To this, Ankit Bhargava, of Sensing Local in India, reminded LGU representatives of the need to mobilize the muscle of the city. This includes not only residents and businesses, but also experts such as planners and engineers.
Participants learn about placemaking innovations and lessons from across Asia through stories shared by speakers from the Clean Mobility Collective during a World Cafe session, day two of the workshop
“I think the biggest lever to leverage the muscle of the city is through participation. The city has to open up what it imagines it wants to do, and then invite the public— as well as the architects and designers— to be able to contribute to that. Do large scale public facing participatory exercises, and really listen— listen deeply,” said Bhargava.
Amplifying the same sentiment from the workshop participants, Bhargava also pointed out that, workshops like #MoveTogether serve as exposure sessions that help local governments understand and adopt technical processes needed to turn people-centered mobility from aspiration to action.
Maria Golda Hilario, ICSC’s Director for Urban Development, reminded the workshop participants that our cities share the same heartbeat of struggle and aspiration, “we acknowledge that while some move freely, many more are still left behind in the journey towards more people-centered mobility systems in our region.”
Hilario concluded, “this is where I stress that the success of inclusive urban development and mobility planning must be rooted in our inclusion of communities and their lived realities.”
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