The economic growth creates rapid development in developing countries especially in the big cities. The increase of carbon emission due to high development of economic activities has reached the urgent level that encourages the climate change. Traffic congestion is one of the biggest city’s issues that results in the high intensity of air pollution. The effective urban traffic management is one strategic solution to urban productivity, sustainable energy demand and lower air pollution. This study presents discussion on the issue of Indonesia’s high carbon emission and the urgency to manage the carbon pricing as the strategic solution. In order to elaborate the urgency of the issue, this study presents the air pollution emission from the transportation sector by using the urban traffic navigation study. The GNSS Technology Application was used to map the urban mobility and its impact on the development of carbon pollution intensity. The finding shows that the integration of urban traffic and carbon tax policies needs to be strategized, as the results reported the significant correlation. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.