United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (NaMATA) and Environmental Compliance Institute (ECI) hosted an East Africa wide forum on soot free buses on 16th May 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya. The forum brought together participants were drawn from national and city government authorities responsible for urban transport in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Participants were provided with the cost benefit analyses of the introduction of soot free buses in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Kigali, Rwanda, and Nairobi Kenya done in different studies. Most notable was that the low and zero emissions bus technologies provided lesser total cost of ownership as compared to Euro IV equivalent bus technology over the span of 8-12 years. Since all East African countries are at various stages of introducing mass transit systems, the countries were urged to overcome the barriers that could hinder the transition to soot free technologies for health, climate, and economic benefits.
The main meeting recommendations were on establishing an enabling policy framework, data driven policy/decision making, concurrent infrastructure development to enable operation of soot free bus technologies and provision of financing mechanisms, capacity building, stakeholder engagement and implementation of policy coupled with compliance and enforcement mechanisms.
This work was funded under the CCAC Heavy Duty Vehicles Initiative( HDVI).
