Compressed Natural Gas Conversion of Motor Vehicles in Dhaka: Valuation of the Co-benefits

The air quality in Dhaka is one of worst in the world and motor vehicles are one of the major polluters. Petroleum fuels used in motor vehicles are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in the city. There have been some recent initiatives that alleviate the local air pollution in the city, among other objectives, although there were no formal estimates for the benefits that can be achieved from the policy. This paper quantifies ex-post the social benefits due to the government initiative that led to widespread conversion of petroleum motor vehicles to compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. Since CNG conversion policies can have important implications on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, impact on GHG emissions is also considered. An impact-pathway model has been developed to relate the changes in emissions resulting from the policy to changes in ambient air quality and resulting number of avoided premature deaths. It is estimated that around 6,000 premature deaths were avoided in Dhaka in 2009 because of the switch from petroleum to CNG vehicles. This amounts to a saving of 1.15 billion in 2009, which is around 1.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. For climate benefits, impacts of black carbon, organic carbon and SO2 have been considered, in addition to the traditional GHGs- CO2 and methane. Global warming factors were considered to normalize the effect of these global pollutants. Although CNG conversion was detrimental from climate change perspective using the changes in CO2 and methane only (methane emissions increased), after considering all the global pollutants (especially reduction in black carbon) the conversion strategy was beneficial. Considering the damage costs of CO2, we find a benefit of around USD 0.6 million in year 2009, which is small as compared to the health benefits. Even if the value of statistical life is one-tenth of what assumed here, local air pollution benefits outweigh climate change benefits by 100 to 1. This indicates that such policies can and should be undertaken on the grounds of improving air pollution alone.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: DVD
  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 21p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 90th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01333242
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 11-2764
  • Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB
  • Created Date: Mar 21 2011 2:13PM