Breathing Clean : Considering the Switch to Natural Gas Buses
In response to emerging epidemiological evidence of the toxicity of diesel vehicular emissions, there is growing interest in substituting conventional diesel with much cleaner natural gas in cities where ambient concentrations of particulate matter...
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| Format: | Publication |
| Language: | English en_US |
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Washington, DC: World Bank
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/10/1652164/breathing-clean-considering-switch-natural-gas-buses http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14033 |
| Summary: | In response to emerging epidemiological
evidence of the toxicity of diesel vehicular emissions,
there is growing interest in substituting conventional
diesel with much cleaner natural gas in cities where ambient
concentrations of particulate matter are markedly higher
than what is internationally considered acceptable. This
paper compares the performance of natural gas and
conventional diesel buses, and outlines the barriers to the
adoption of natural gas buses in developing countries. In
the absence of emissions standards that effectively require
natural gas, natural gas-fueled buses are unlikely to be
adopted because they are more expensive to operate relative
to diesel buses. The social case for replacing diesel with
natural gas a fuel for buses rests on environmental grounds.
If a local government decides that the reduction in air
pollution associated with the substitution of conventional
diesel with natural gas for use in buses is worth the cost,
then it needs to adopt policies to encourage the switch to
natural gas. These might include emissions standards for
buses, or fuel and vehicle taxes that reflect marginal
social costs. The contribution of exhaust emissions from
buses to the ambient concentrations of harmful pollutants
needs to be quantified so that associated health damage
costs can be estimated. |
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