New C40 Cities report on clean bus technology
C40 Chair and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has announced the results of the Hybrid Electric Bus Test Program.
The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) has released a report on the use of low carbon bus technologies in Latin American cities, the findings of which could help shape the next generation of sustainable urban transport in the region and beyond.
C40 Chair and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the results of the Hybrid Electric Bus Test Program — an initiative designed and implemented by C40 in partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative, and with financial support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) — during the New York Times Building Sustainable Cities conference.
Through the participation of local governments, bus suppliers, and bus operators, the Program measured the emissions from, and evaluated the technological performance of, hybrid and electric buses in Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Santiago de Chile.
Some of the Program’s key outcomes include:
- Hybrid and electric technologies produce smaller volumes of GHG emissions and local air pollutants and are more fuel-efficient than standard diesel buses.
- By reducing harmful local pollutants and other externalities (such as noise pollution), adopting hybrid and/or electric bus technologies brings significant environmental and social benefits.
- Hybrid and electric technologies are cheaper in the long run. In spite of the higher initial purchase costs of low carbon buses, the total life cycle costs (calculated over a 10 year period of assumed operation) is equal to and in many cases lower than the cost of conventional diesel buses.
