Emissions from transport sector contribute largely to China’s urban air pollution (including PM2.5 and ozone). As the soaring of the country’s vehicle quantity and fuel consumption, air pollution from urban transport is bringing growing challenges to urban air quality control. This cross-boundary report isthe first attempt to integrate urban planning, transport planning, transport management, vehicle and fuel upgrade, regional cooperation, etc., for acomprehensive strategy. It aims at combining international and domestic good management experiences with latest update on Chinese transport air pollution control, and providing pathways to curb China’s urban transport pollution. Cases and policy suggestions are provided under each pathway for decision makers and implementers. As the lead organizations of the report preparation， CAAC Secretariat and Energy Foundation have invited several experts from ADB, CRAES, ICCT, etc., to jointly support this report.
This report has raised ten pathways to curb air pollution from urban transport:
i. Improve Urban Planning via Transit-oriented Development (TOD)
Transit-oriented development strategies help urbanareas to decrease the demand for transport and ultimately reduce vehicle pollution.
ii. Vehicle Population Control.
To control the vehicle population the government can seek to limit numbers of new vehicle registration and the total vehicle ownership.
iii. Raise Vehicle Emission Standards Measures
To reduce vehicle emissions while the demand need not to be restrained, the raising of current emission standard is necessary. This includes strict requirements on evaporative emission from vehicle production, sale, and use.
iv. Improve the Quality of Vehicle Fuels
Fuel quality is closely related to the types and volumes of the pollutants emitted by a vehicle. To improve fuel quality, reducing sulfur content in diesel is a key step.
v. In-use Vehicle Emission Management
The underlying principle of in-use vehicle emission management is to identify vehicles that are not in compliance with emission standards and to get them repaired or scraped. The government can seek ways to manage in-use vehicle emission based on vehicle emission inspection and maintenance programs.
vi. Improve Transport Planning, Promote Public Transport and Non-motorized Transport
The promotion of public transportation and non-motorized transport facilities can largely contribute to emission reduction.
vii. Improve Traffic Management
Traffic problems such as congestion and air pollution are to a great extent the result of ineffective traffic management and enforcement, which can be mitigated by setting up low emission zones, banning on high emission vehicles, road pricing to alleviate traffic jams and emission, direct vehicle restriction policies, etc., to mitigate the problems.
viii. AlternativeFuel Vehicles and Fuel Economy
To reduce vehicle industry’s reliance on petroleum fuels, a series of interconnected policy options can be used, including promoting the development and deployment of alternative fuel vehicles.
ix. Regional Cooperation for Air Pollution Control from Transport Sector
Since the mobility of vehicles, decision-making shall consider regional coordination and integration.
x. EnablingEnvironment
Proper financial instrument, education and outreach programs are necessary to build up an enabling environment to increase feasibility and public acceptance of relevant policies so as to improve implementation.
This report is a Chinese version, please click here for more information.
