Second-hand vehicle importers in Kenya could soon be restricted from importing vehicles more than five years old as the government moves to improve on fuel efficiency and cut down carbon emissions.
This is one of the recommendations of a study by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and the University of Nairobi commissioned by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
The study looked at the prospect of promoting cleaner and more fuel-
efficient vehicles in order to reduce localised air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and national fuel bills.
"The vehicle population in the country has been increasing at between 10 and 12 per cent each year since 2003 and as of 2012 we had 2.02 million vehicles on our roads," Energy and Petroleum Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge said.
This growth rate, he stated, is far higher than the rate of development of the road network, with the bulk of this traffic concentrated in the cities.
According to UNEP, Kenya's bulk of carbon emissions originates from the transport sector with most of the adverse effects recorded in urban centres. "The transport fleet in Kenya is composed, up to 90 per cent, of second-hand imported vehicles and we have an opportunity to make these more fuel-efficient and cleaner because if they use less fuel they
emit less," said UNEP's Head of Transport Unit Rob de Jong.
Lowering the age limit to five years would mean Kenyans would have
to dig deeper into their pockets to import vehicles as newer units are
more expensive than older units.
Source: Standard Media
