The Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s (CCAC) Heavy-duty vehicles and engines hub aims at eliminating black carbon emissions from new and existing heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDVs) and engines which benefits air quality and health, and helps address near-term warming.
With funding from the CCAC and other partners, UNEP has been supporting countries in the Global South to reduce emissions from HDVs through a two-pronged approach. In the immediate term, countries are being encouraged to shift to lower Sulphur diesel fuels with a goal of 10 ppm, concurrent with the introduction of stricter vehicle emissions standards with a target to Euro VI emission standards. At the same time countries, and cities in the Global South are being supported to develop targets and roadmaps towards electrification of HDVs, especially for urban buses, and where possible along freight corridors.
Urban buses provide effective and affordable transport services to citizens, but they account for about 25% of transportation-related black carbon emissions. Only few developing countries have appropriate emission limits for buses in place. Many cities around the world are facing air pollution peaks, and the number of early deaths from PM2.5 is estimated to increase by over 50 % by 2030 from 2015 levels. As cities in developing and transitional countries plan to improve public transportation through investment in dedicated bus transit corridors, this is an opportunity to also consider electrification of some of these bus corridors.
Countries are also being supported to develop green freight strategies to shift to cleaner HDV technologies. For example, one of the busiest Eastern African freight corridor, the Northern Corridor that connects landlocked nations of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the Kenyan maritime seaport of Mombasa has recently been supported to develop their 2030 green freight strategy.
More information is available on the CCAC website.
