The ATO green roads profiles present country-level perspectives on how 35 Asia-Pacific economies are addressing the development and management of sustainable eco-friendly roads. Drawing from diverse datasets and policy documents, the profiles highlight practices and measures that contribute to greener transport infrastructure.

Developed by the Asian Transport Observatory (ATO) in partnership with the International Road Federation (IRF), the profiles are designed to complement the Green Roads Toolkit. The toolkit provides a practical reference for integrating good practices across nine dimensions:

• Decarbonization
• Climate resilience
• Water and land management
• Pollution reduction
• Conserving biodiversity
• Responsible sourcing of materials
• Improving quality of life
• Disaster preparedness
• Fostering inclusive growth

This 2025 edition builds on earlier work to provide a comprehensive resource for guiding the planning, development, construction, and management of greener, more sustainable roads.

The road network, spanning 78.8 thousand kilometers, serves as the circulatory system of the nation's economy, yet it is showing signs of strain. Access is tightening. While the population has grown, the availability of road infrastructure has contracted, falling from 9.2 kilometers per thousand people in 2000 to 7.6 kilometers in 2024. This contraction coincides with an increase in demand. Motorization has climbed to 161 vehicles per thousand people. While this remains roughly half the Asia-Pacific average of 317, the trajectory is steep.

By 2024, road transport emissions hit 9.1 million tonnes of CO2e, accounting for a staggering 92% of the sector's total output. This dominance is absolute. More concerning is the decoupling gap. Since 2000, road transport emissions have increased by 6.1% annually, outpacing the broader economy's 1.6% annual growth.

Efficiency gains are present but sluggish. The emissions intensity of the road sector dropped to 35 grams of CO2e per USD in 2024. However, the pace of improvement—minus 2.1% annually since 2015—lags dangerously behind the regional benchmark. The Asia-Pacific region averaged a 5.4% improvement; Central and West Asia, 3.2%. Azerbaijan is decarbonizing, but at a slow pace. The grid itself offers little salvation for the electrification push. With a carbon intensity of 633 gCO2 per kWh, Azerbaijan's power sector is more polluting than the Asia-Pacific average of 559. An electric vehicle charged here today is only as clean as the gas that powers the turbine.

The tailpipe extracts a heavy price. PM 2.5 emissions from transport contributed to at least 582 premature deaths in a single year. The World Bank estimates the economic damage from ambient and household PM 2.5 exposure at $11.5 billion—nearly 8% of GDP. This is not an externality; it is a direct levy on the economy. The source is clear: 82% of transport-related PM2.5 comes from roads. Since 2015, these emissions have increased by 6.2% annually, reversing the slow progress of the previous decade.

The infrastructure is brittle. Under a 4.5-degree warming scenario, extreme precipitation threatens more than 16% of Azerbaijan's road and rail assets. The financial loss is already underway, with average annual losses to transport infrastructure estimated at $7.1 million. Bridges and tunnels, though a fraction of the network, bear a disproportionate 7.2% of these losses.

Roads now dissect 48 of the country's 70 Key Biodiversity Areas. The density of intrusion—128 meters of road per thousand square kilometers of protected land—far exceeds the Asia-Pacific average of 88. Connectivity for humans is becoming fragmented for wildlife.

The Access Deficit Connection is not universal. In rural hinterlands, 754,000 people remain beyond the reach of an all-season road. Isolation is their geography. They are cut off from markets, healthcare, and resilience against shocks. The urban picture is equally fractured. Among nine agglomerations, only 11% provide public transport access to half their population. In 56% of cities, only two out of ten residents can reach a transit point. The car remains a necessity, not a choice.

Safety improvements are too slow. Road fatalities claimed 1,769 lives in 2021. In Azerbaijan, road crash fatalities decreased by approximately -3.3% per year between 2016 and 2021. However, this is not enough to reach the 2030 target to halve the fatalities by 2030.

Azerbaijan faces a paradox of mobility: the network is extensive yet insufficient. The road sector is a heavy emitter, lags regional peers in efficiency improvements, and relies on a carbon-intensive grid that dulls the promise of electrification. The external costs—measured in lives lost to pollution, GDP eroded by health damages, and biodiversity fractured by asphalt—are rising.

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