Fiona Chigwida
A complete ban on used vehicles may not be possible in many importing countries immediately, but there are various actions that might be taken to curb importation or at the very least to ensure that the country imports roadworthy and acceptable vehicles.
This comes after a study warned that African and South Asian countries may miss national targets to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions unless rich countries stop using them as dumping grounds for millions of old cars, known as clunkers.
Sadly, it also comes as Zimbabwe launched a motor industry issues which does not proffer a position with regards strategies to curb GHG emissions.
The used vehicles, which should have been scrapped under domestic regulations, are instead dumped on developing nations where they contribute to carbon emissions, said CSE, a New Delhi-based think-tank in a study titled Clunkered: Combating dumping of used vehicles.
Weak environmental regulations in poorer economies and stronger emissions regulations in exporting countries are among the factors “inciting this unregulated global trade in clunkers,” said Anumita Roychowdhury of CSE.
“If this continues unchecked, without the exporting countries sharing the responsibility of addressing the problem, the poorer countries will not be able to meet their clean air and climate mitigation goals,” she said during a press conference on Facebook Live.
There are about two billion vehicles globally, two per cent (40 million) of which are deemed road-unworthy in developed nations annually, according to the report.
According to the study, when the capacity in most importing countries to technically assess the roadworthiness and emission performance of each imported vehicle is extremely weak, the most immediate and feasible strategy is to adopt an age cap to weed out extremely polluting, unsafe and uneconomical vehicles.
An age cap will allow use of a substantial part of the remaining useful economic life of the younger imported fleet while eliminating the highly polluting ones. But the ultimate objective should be to ban import of used vehicles.
So far only four countries in Africa and three countries in South Asia have succeeded in completely banning the import of used vehicles. As many as 25 countries in Africa and most in South Asia have imposed age restrictions. But age restriction is widely divergent—from three to 15 years. It needs to be harmonized to below three to five years. Divergent age caps create the scope of leakages through porous borders and re-export.
The report says the fiscal strategy of imposing higher tariff on older vehicles will have to be designed for effective reduction in import of old and polluting vehicles. It should not create perverse incentive for older vehicles over newer ones. Even after an ambitious hefty tax their price remains low compared to that of newer vehicles. Thus, eliminating very old vehicles from the market is critical to make fiscal measures work. “Countries will have to align their strategies. Harmonized action will help create bottom-up pressure on the international market and also plug leakages.”
There is growing consensus among the regulators as well as multilateral agencies such as UNEP that for global trade in vehicles Euro IV equivalent should be minimum harmonized standards for both import and export. This by default eliminates all vehicles that are lesser than Euro IV from the export stream. It will also help to stabilize prices for the acceptable fleet in the international market and not undercut regulatory action in importing countries that are trying to establish an age cap as well as minimum emissions standards.
The study says global exporters will have to follow the age cap and emission standards requirements for international trade and this will have to be multilaterally established for a harmonized approach. Importing countries cannot gain from regulatory restrictions on age to bring cleaner, younger and more fuel-efficient vehicles if fuel quality and emissions standards do not improve. Currently, the newer imported vehicles are stripped off the improved and advanced emissions control systems as requisite fuels are not available in most importing countries.
Eleven countries in Africa have adopted cleaner fuels (low sulphur 50 ppm). The countries include Morocco, Mauritius, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ghana, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. While Morocco is the first country in Africa to adopt ultra-low sulphur (10 ppm) fuel, Mauritius and East African countries have similar plans.
There are a few others who are poised to make the transition.
Increasingly, several countries such as Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh among others have begun to set-up vehicle inspection centres for on-road emission and roadworthiness tests. But this will have to be organized at a different level—at the point of entry and subsequently periodically.
Low- and middle-income countries will have to deal with the final disposal of the fleet as these vehicles cannot be reused or resold anywhere else. The costs of disposal and recycling rest on these countries and place enormous economic burden on them. Importing countries so far have not accounted for such costs. Moreover, the potential of recovering valuable material — an important part of a circular economy—remains underutilized.
This will have to be part of shared responsibilities. The importing companies as well as exporting governments through bilateral and multilateral arrangements need to create a mechanism to support scrapping and recycling in the low-income countries. This will require common set of criteria for the region to declare end-of-life of vehicles for recycling. Most countries in Africa and South Asia do not have adequate inspection systems for road worthiness, emissions and safety. This often makes arbitrary cut off of age the decisive factor to scrap vehicles.
