Jean Todt

Safe and sustainable mobility: on the road to the SDGs

Jean Todt, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety discusses safe mobility at the heart of sustainable and inclusive development.

Tuesday 04.05.2021

Every year 1.35 million people are killed in the world’s roads. 50 million more are injured.

Road crashes are the leading cause of death for children and young people (5-29 years) and developing countries bear the greatest burden. But it’s not just personal safety – the economic costs keep people in poverty and road quality is linked to many areas of sustainable development.

Safe and sustainable public transport helps provide access to trade, jobs, markets, education, health care and other services that contribute to economic growth and quality of life. It can empower women, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

Road safety should be an integral element of land use, street design, fighting climate change, transport system planning and governance, especially for vulnerable road users and in urban areas.

Solutions exist, we can prevent millions of tragedies on the road worldwide.

The lecture was hosted by the the IPAG Business School and the UN Road Safety Fund.

Organized in partnership with:

Jean Todt was born on February 25, 1946 in Pierrefort (Cantal, France). Co-driver of rallies from 1966 to 1981, he won the team world championship that year with Peugeot. In 1982 he founded Peugeot-Talbot sports, which he managed until 1993. During these years he won 4 world rally championship titles as a team manager with the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 (drivers and manufacturers in 1985 and 1986), 5 Paris-Dakar (from 1987 to 1991) and twice the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Peugeot 905 (1992 and 1993). From 1993 to 2009, he is the Team Principal of the Scuderia Ferrari in Formula 1, winning 14 world championship titles (6 driver titles with Michael Schumacher from 2000 to 2004 and Kimi Räikönnen in 2007 and 8 manufacturer titles).  In 2009, he was elected President of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), and re-elected unanimously in 2013 and 2017.  Since 2015, he has also been the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety.

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