Being the first sub region in Africa to adopt low Sulphur fuels, the East Africa sub region is set to institute vehicle emissions standards as a measure towards cleaning up the transport sector in line with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Global Sulphur strategy. The strategy targets to have a global transition to low sulfur on-road diesel and associated vehicle emissions standards by 2030. While fuel sulfur reduction has delivered significant health and air quality benefits in the subregion, the full benefits of cleaner fuels will only be realized when low-sulfur fuel are combined with appropriate vehicle emissions standards.
Towards this, standards technical committee members from the five East African countries (Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda) met in Nairobi on 14-15 November 2019 to discuss the details of the proposed vehicle emissions standards for the East Africa region. Ms. Stella Apolot of the East Africa Community Secretariat, Jane Akumu from UNEP and Gerphas Opondo of the Environment Compliance Institute guided the deliberations on the standards. Thirty participants attended the meeting where it emerged that both Kenya and Rwanda had already gazzetted vehicle emission standards. Rwanda was due to implement the standards as part of an intentional strategy of assisting the country get back to the WHO recommended levels of air quality.
