South Africa fuel economy workshop

October 3, 2016 by Global Fuel Economy Initiative

Categories: Global Fuel Economy Initiative, Africa, In-country

Preliminary results of work being done by the ICCT in developing a fuel economy baseline for South Africa were presented at the workshop.

On 25th August 2016, GFEI held a workshop in Pretoria on fuel economy standards. The workshop was attended by a wide variety of local and state government officials from the departments of Transport, Energy, and Environmental Affairs, City of Tshwane, Johannesburg Metrobus, as well as technical experts from the South African National Energy Development Institute, and NGOs involved in transport and climate issues.

The purpose of the workshop was to present preliminary results of work being done by GFEI partner the ICCT in developing a fuel economy baseline for South Africa, to have a chance to describe how FE and CO2 standards work, and to listen to stakeholders’ questions and comments on the idea of potentially adopting standards.

In the last couple years, South African policymakers have taken steps to reduce the vehicle fleet carbon footprint by adopting policies that target vehicle demand: fuel economy label programs and vehicle taxation programs based on CO2 emissions. Widening the scope of current policy tools into the vehicle supply side, by adopting new passenger car fuel economy standards, is the best next step for the largest market in the African continent to reduce its transport sector carbon footprint.

To better assess potential climate and fuel saving benefits of the standards, the International Council on Clean Transportation is conducting a baseline fuel economy and CO2 emissions assessment for passenger vehicles. The baseline analysis provides an overview of the current South African vehicle market composition, in terms of vehicle characteristics (weight, size, power), fuel consumption and CO2 emissions; it also permits drawing relevant comparisons with vehicle fleets from other global markets. The baseline analysis is the first step towards new vehicle FE/CO2 emissions standards development as it sets the initial input to model the potential benefits of adopting new vehicle FE /CO2 standards.

The baseline analysis and workshop project have been conducted with the support of GFEI and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).