Page 26 - Energize January 2022

NEWS

How South Africa’s road traffic contributes to

carbon emissions

hile the use of fossil fuels just under 62 minutes (each way). Specifically in the capital of Lagos, traffic congestion can
for electricity generation be extreme, with an estimated 10 000 passengers in each direction per hour during peak
Walways gets bad press, and times.
th
rightly so, the latest figures from research Ranked at 16 , Thailand’s average commute time is similar to South Africa’s (39,76
undertaken in the UK shows that CO 2 minutes) but produces almost 1300 grams less per journey (3581 g).
emissions from vehicles with petrol- and Only six countries were found to produce less than 1000 grams of CO 2 emissions from a
diesel-powered internal combustion single journey: Austria, Hong Kong, Denmark, Japan, Finland and the Czech Republic.
engines also adds a significant amount of
CO 2 to the atmosphere. Click here to download the report
New research from Moneybarn has
revealed that South Africa was found to Editor’s note: The amount of carbon emissions and other pollutants from South African
be the country producing the highest CO 2 road users is at dangerous levels, not just from commuter vehicles, which is the focus of this
emissions in the world from an average report, but from many passenger and commercial vehicles - both large and small - which are
commute, producing 4859 kg of CO 2. not tested regularly and are often seen spewing out black or grey smoke from their exhaust
By analysing data from Numbeo’s pipes. A recent report states the South African vehicles emit about 22% more CO 2 into the
Traffic Index on the average commute time atmosphere than vehicles in the EU do.
and vehicle global emissions, Moneybarn
has compiled a report revealing and The biggest culprits in CO2 emissions:
ranking each country according to the
amount of CO 2 emissions created from a Average commute
single average journey. Rank Country
Duration (min) Emissions (g)
Click here to download the report 1 South Africa 39,39 4859
2 Lebanon 38,53 4621
Key findings
With an estimate of 4859 grams of CO 2 3 Costa Rica 60,19 4514
per journey, South Africa finds itself as the 4 Egypt 48,99 4389
country producing the most CO 2 emissions 5 Puerto Rico 34,16 4204
per journey, making it and Lebanon
(4621g) the only countries to produce 6 Jordan 41,66 4065
more than 4500 grams of CO 2 per journey. 7 Kenya 56,39 4053
While its average commute time was
relatively low in comparison to many 8 UAE 36,23 3991
other countries, it was South Africa that 9 Nigeria 61,97 3963
had the highest emissions per journey, 10 Malaysia 37,21 3886
with 4859 g of CO 2 emissions per one-
way journey. Rather than formal public
transport systems, the use of minibus 15 USA 32,87 3651
taxis is popular in South Africa, which are
often older, more polluting vehicles. It is 28 Australia 34,81 2851
estimated that about 200 000 of these 33 New Zealand 34,81 2576
minibus taxis operate daily on South 44 UK 34,40 2033
Africa’s roads.
Though Nigeria is only the tenth 68 South Korea 40,22 1383
largest producer of CO 2 emissions from an 74 Netherlands 27,64 1246
average journey, it was found to have the
longest average commute time, being over 77 Germany 31,22 1203
an hour long (61,97 minutes). Nigerians 82 Japan 39,96 876
spend more time stuck in traffic than 85 Austria 25,67 819
anyone, with an average commute time of

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