Car or truck exports drives pollution to developing world
28 October, 2020
Getting rid of old cars is helping clean the skies over developing nations, but many clunkers are ending up in developing countries where they are add significantly to polluting of the environment, a U.N. report warns.
The European Union, Japan and USA exported around three million used vehicles every year between 2015 and 2018, with most likely to low- and middle-income countries and over fifty percent finding yourself in Africa, according to report released Monday by the U.N. Environment Program.
With the expansion of car ownership in developing countries likely to be a major way to obtain emissions in coming decades, the UNEP called for tightening the guidelines for exporting and importing old, polluting vehicles.
"Developed countries must stop exporting vehicles that fail environment and safety inspections and so are no longer considered roadworthy within their own countries, while importing countries should introduce better quality standards," said UNEP's executive director, Inger Andersen.
The agency cited an investigation by Dutch authorities in 2019 that found the common age of vehicles waiting to be exported was 18 years.
They also had a lot more than 200,000 km (125,000 miles) on their odometers on average, and several were missing catalytic converters that reduce toxic gases from exhaust.
UNEP said that two-thirds of the 146 countries it looked at had weak rules about the import of used vehicles, and some had no pollution standards.
Source: japantoday.com