Public Transport Decarbonization via Urban Bus Fleet Replacement in Portugal

Paulo J. G. Ribeiro and José F. G. Mendes
Additional contact information
Paulo J. G. Ribeiro: Centre for Territory Environment and Construction, School of Engineering, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimaraes, Portugal
José F. G. Mendes: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimaraes, Portugal

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: The transport sector accounts for around one-quarter of the GHG emissions in Europe, and, in Portugal, it represents almost one-third of the total emissions to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, these emissions have increased in recent years. Hence, cities and countries need plans to decarbonize their public transport fleets, and, more specifically, to replace fossil-fueled buses with electric buses that produce zero CO 2 emissions. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to present a method to decarbonize the bus fleet in Portugal by a scheduled replacement of the current fleet, which is fueled by fossil fuels, with a completely electric fleet, in fourteen years. The study shows that it is possible to replace all Portuguese urban bus fleets with electric vehicles considering that all vehicles will be replaced when reaching the age of 14 years. Replacing the urban bus fleet with zero-emission buses would aid policymakers and bus companies to reduce the GHGs, and therefore contribute to fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, namely, Goal 13—take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Keywords: decarbonization; green public transport; zero-emissions; bus fleet; electric buses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/12/4286/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/12/4286/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:12:p:4286-:d:836469

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().