Rwanda to Phase out Polluting Vehicles by 2040, an Efficient Strategy to Mitigate Global Warming Effects?

Authors

Josue Kwizera, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

Fall 2021

Document Type

Editorial

Citation

Op-ed from ENSC230, Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies, fall 2021

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Comments

Copyright 2021, Josue Kwizera. Used by permission

Abstract

Passenger vehicles are major pollutants because on average a typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. I highly support the idea that Rwanda joined on November 11, 2021, a group of countries at the COP26 United Nations climate talks that have made an agreement to end polluting vehicles by 2040. Rwanda is a landlocked country with a 12.95 million population as of 2020 (World Bank). Rwanda currently has over 221,000 registered vehicles; 83,980 are passenger vehicles, 114,900 vehicles (52 percent of those vehicles) are motorcycles and the rest include public transports (buses and minibuses) and trucks for transportation of goods. Because of the high population density and the size of Rwanda, many people use motorcycles and public buses as a mode of transportation to move from place to place.