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Time of India
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Can public transport ever replace cars?
Representative Image (AI) Scattered among the ever-moving traffic of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, are a couple of thousand blue and white minibuses. They travel to every corner of the city, carrying an endless stream of people who hop on and off without having to worry about the hassle of parking. The network is a vital part of this 11-million-strong megacity's answer to a big problem. Too much motorized traffic. Jakarta is not alone. Globally, air pollution and road accidents caused by cars, vans and motorbikes kill around two million people each year, and combustion engine vehicles account for around 10% of the global carbon emissions causing climate change. For decades, the response to a growth in traffic has been to build more lanes, flyovers and parking. But this only attracts more cars and greater potential for congestion. Now in a bid to for safer, decongested roads and cleaner air, some cities and countries are trying to get their citizens to ditch cars in favor of public transport. Their approaches are as varied as the results. How enticing is free public transport? Some cities, such as the Estonian capital Tallinn, have opted for a seemingly simple solution. In a 2012 referendum, residents of the almost half a million-strong city voted to make trains, trams and buses free for locals. Since 2013, the cost of public transport has fallen to the city government, to the tune of around €40 ($45) per person annually — with mixed results, according to Merlin Rehema, a sustainable city researcher with the nonprofit research group, Stockholm Environment Institute. "Ridership has fallen dramatically, from 42% to now like 30%," Rehema said, adding that car use has gone up by about 5%. "People who were using public transport anyways, are now using it more often. And to some extent, short walks and bicycle trips that were taken before also became bus trips." Other places — such as Luxembourg, the island of Malta and the US city of Kansas City — that have also made their public transportation fare-free, report similar outcomes. Researchers attribute this in part to Covid-era restrictions, but that is not all that's at play. For the love of the automobile Pete Dyson, a behavioral scientist at the UK's Bath University, says decisions around how people choose to travel also come down to psychology. "When people look at the psychological aspects of car ownership, they typically look at areas of status and of pride," Dyson said, adding that cars also meet a fundamental human need for safety and comfort in a way that delayed and crowded buses do not. He adds that this need can be addressed by giving buses priority over cars to make journeys smoother, punctual, and more reliable. And by making public transport "a safer environment, a more comfortable environment." Ensuring other benefits like "access to a seat or a table, or the ability to do useful or meaningful things while travelling," would help too. Riding the bus with TransJakarta That's the way things are moving in Jakarta. Buses are air-conditioned, have a separate seating area for women, and staff are on hand for any assistance and information required. Buses painted pink are women-only. Each trip costs the equivalent of €0.20. Around 10% of trips in the city are currently made by bus and train, a number the government wants to increase that number sixfold by 2030. But car and motorcycle traffic are growing. "The major challenge here, or the major homework here, is to push people to use public transport," said Gonggomtua Sitanggang, the Southeast Asia Director of the non-profit Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. So far, Jakarta has established what is known as a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, which repurposed existing lanes to create 14 bus-only corridors. The TransJarkarta network, as it is called, covers 250 kilometers or 155 miles and is connected to the 2,200 blue and white minibuses that can be caught within 500 meters of most places across the city. "And these minibuses are free of charge to incentivize people to use public transport," said Sitanggang, adding that this kind of first and last-mile connectivity is important to create access to public transport. Discouraging car ownership Some cities are taking a different approach and are trying to make driving less appealing, such as through levies. From this year, car owners in Estonia will have to pay both an initial registration fee and an annual vehicle tax. Meanwhile, London established a congestion charge zone that saw car traffic fall and bus and tube usage go up. But Merlin Rehema says there are other ways to disincentivize driving, such as "really redesigning your cities in order to favor public transport use." This is what Paris has been doing by removing tens of thousands of parking lots, closing entire roads to cars and tripling parking fees for big and polluting SUVs. Jakarta is also starting to redesign infrastructure in the central zone of Dukuh Atas, which has tens of thousands of parking spaces but also sits at a major public transport hub with bus and rail connections. "We start by improving the connectivity, the pedestrian and cycling facilities, and then we develop a strategy of how to reduce the parking space within the area," said Sitanggang. Even cities that cannot quickly transform infrastructure can take action, Dyson said. "Some quick fixes to an existing network would be improving the quality of information about routes and wayfinding and making tickets and fares simpler."
Japan Times
28-04-2025
- Science
- Japan Times
The world is waking up to the dangers of superpollutants
Carbon dioxide is the big daddy of greenhouse gases. Making up the bulk of our emissions and staying up in the atmosphere for many centuries, whether we're successful or not at limiting global temperature rise boils down to what we do about CO2. But it's only part of the equation in global warming. A group of lesser-discussed climate pollutants are many times more powerful than carbon dioxide and could serve as an emergency brake on near-term warming. Even better: There's reason to be cautiously optimistic. So-called super pollutants — a group of greenhouse gases and aerosols including methane, black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and tropospheric ozone — are responsible for about 45% of warming to date, with carbon dioxide responsible for the other 55%. While these emissions exist in the atmosphere for a fraction of CO2's centuries-long lifetime, they have a more potent warming effect. Methane is the short-lived climate pollutant with the greatest impact, coming mainly from agricultural, waste and oil and gas industry sources. While methane isn't toxic in itself, it's the primary contributor to tropospheric — or ground-level — ozone. O3 is actually helpful when it's up high, 20-odd kilometers above sea level, where it filters the sun's ultraviolet radiation; but down in the lowest level of our planet's atmosphere, it wreaks havoc with our lungs and vegetation. Black carbon — the soot that results from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, waste and biomass — isn't a greenhouse gas, but does contribute to warming by absorbing sunlight and releasing it as heat, in the same way that urban infrastructure and asphalt roads do. As a major component of particulate matter, black carbon is bad news for our respiratory and cardiovascular systems and impedes photosynthesis in plants. As these pollutants disappear from the atmosphere much faster than CO2, the benefits of reducing them will be realized sooner. Chris Malley, senior researcher at Stockholm Environment Institute, explained that hasty mitigation has the potential to slow down the warming expected by 2050 by as much as 0.5 degrees Celsius. But the real beauty of reducing super pollutants is the benefit to human health and food security: The Clean Air and Climate Coalition, a body launched by the United Nations Environment Program, states that it could also prevent more than 2 million premature deaths each year and avoid annual crop losses of over 50 million metric tons. Despite their multihazardous natures, the Paris Agreement doesn't require countries to single out super pollutants in climate action plans known as nationally-determined contributions, or NDCs. As a result, many of the first NDCs didn't do so at all, simply referring to one number — CO2-equivalent, a standardized metric which converts the different warming potentials of each pollutant into a comparable figure. This doesn't give a clear picture of the impacts of any given action plan as these gases have distinct impacts over different timescales. It also obscures the chance to communicate the very tangible and near-term public benefits. But here's why we ought to feel some optimism. NDCs are submitted every five years and in the second round of submissions post-2020, Malley observed a sizeable uptick in countries referring to super pollutants explicitly or implicitly, via sector-specific targets or co-benefits. Pre-2020, only Mexico and Uruguay included quantitative reduction targets for a relevant super pollutant. Post-2020, 20 NDCs included quantitative information on short-lived climate pollutants or air pollutant reductions. It's also notable that several countries also included assessments of the benefits. Nigeria, for example, concluded that if its climate plan was successfully implemented, 30,000 Nigerians wouldn't die prematurely every year by 2030. It turns NDCs into plans to protect citizens' health. Now, new NDCs are being submitted ahead of the 30th United Nations climate change conference in Brazil at the end of the year. There's only a small basket to analyze, with just 19 nations submitting updated plans so far, but there are signs that awareness of super pollutants is growing. One notable example is Canada's NDC, which reported the outcomes of a public engagement push. About 11,000 participants were asked which co-benefits of climate change action should be prioritized and 79% said air quality and public health. This demonstrates how the near-term benefits of tackling superpollutants can strengthen and broaden public support for climate action. At a time where the concept of net zero emissions is heavily politicized, that's incredibly helpful. But, while there's reason to hope, NDCs are just pieces of paper. The U.S. submitted an ambitious climate plan at the end of the Biden administration which won't be implemented under U.S. President Donald Trump, who is withdrawing the country from the Paris Agreement again. Success in many developing countries' plans also depends on conditional support. Without more money and expansions in technical and human capacity, all the benefits for planet and people won't be realized. Methane emissions have also continued to rise, meaning that while the plans and awareness are there, we're still way off track. We don't have to be. Often solutions are easy wins with no technical breakthroughs required, such as reducing methane leaks from oil and gas infrastructure or draining rice paddy fields once or twice a year. Economic benefits are another upside, giving the waste sector an opportunity to generate profits out of rubbish by selling compost or biogas. Make no mistake, carbon dioxide is the number one greenhouse gas to conquer. But ridding ourselves of super pollutants will yield immediate benefits — cooling our cities, giving us cleaner air to breathe and better food to eat. Lara Williams is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Judge blocks law aimed at protecting the Amazon in controversial move: 'We can't accept ... demands'
A Brazilian judge suspended a key tax law that was protecting the Amazon rainforest's deforested areas from soy extraction. According to reports by Reuters, Judge Flavio Dino blocked the law from the western state of Mato Grosso, the nation's top soy-producing state. Soy is a major part of the Brazilian economy, as the country is the world's largest producer and exporter of soy. To minimize the environmental impact of soy production, soy companies around the world voluntarily signed the "Amazon soy moratorium." Under this agreement, firms pledged to stop purchasing soy from farms that were located in deforested areas of Brazil's Amazon rainforest after 2008. Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. However, recently Judge Dino suspended the law from going into effect in the state of Mato Grosso. Per reports by Reuters, Judge Dino claimed the agreement "seems to violate the principle of free enterprise" and uses "tax rules as a punitive instrument." The growth of soy plantations is the second-largest cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, the Stockholm Environment Institute reports. Deforestation not only threatens the region's biodiversity but also exacerbates the overheating of the planet. While some experts argue the soy moratorium is still not enough to protect the region from deforestation, it helped hold soy companies somewhat accountable. The suspended law provides a financial incentive for companies to extract soy from land that has not been deforested. Without it, companies aren't incentivized to choose the environment over profits. Governor of Mato Grosso Mauro Mendes spoke out against the move, stating further action will be taken. He also said the state will appeal the decision. "We can't accept that companies, national or foreign ones, come to Brazil and make demands that are not in the Brazilian law," he said in a video posted on social media, per Reuters. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Iraq Business
12-02-2025
- General
- Iraq Business
Tools and Training enhance Water Resilience in Iraq
By Kim Andersson, Annette Huber-Lee, Jennifer Aghaji for the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Focus Iraq: SEI's water tools and training enhance water resilience Iraq faces severe water challenges due to climate change and regional issues from prolonged conflict. SEI trains Iraqi officials and researchers in water resource management to boost water resilience. A recent workshop in Jordan focused on tools like SEI WEAP and circularity and included field trips to Jordanian facilities to provide real-world context. The training supports ongoing work on Iraq's Al-Adhaim watershed, aiming to improve water access. Click here to read the full report.
