Cars fouling Asian air but high-tech offers hope
Cars fouling Asian air but high-tech offers hope
SINGAPORE (Reuters): Toxic emissions from vehicles are the
leading cause of air pollution in Asia but stepped-up
collaboration within the region and new technology for "greener"
cars offer hope for a cleaner environment, experts say.
Vehicle emissions pose a greater threat than industrial
emissions as they are close to ground level and are constantly
swirled in the air by passing traffic, Jitendra Shah, senior
environmental engineer with the World Bank, told Reuters.
According to the World Health Organization, four to eight
percent of all deaths in the Asia-Pacific region are due to air
pollution.
Stricter standards and better enforcement have cut airborne
industrial pollutants in most of Asia, Shah said on the sidelines
of a transport technology conference organized by DaimlerChrysler
and Singapore's Economic Development Board on Wednesday.
"The number of vehicles has been growing in all of these
cities and so the trend from vehicular emissions is generally
up," Shah said.
"Even though the newer vehicles emit less, your base is
getting much larger and the number of vehicles that are scrapped
is relatively very low."
In a bid to address air pollution issues in the region, the
World Bank and Asian Development Bank launched the Clean Air
Initiative in February with officials from eight Asian cities.
Through a series of workshops, the program strives to share
knowledge and expedite pilot air quality projects.
Singapore and Hong Kong were clearly ahead of the game, with
Bangkok having the best air quality among developing Asian mega
cities with more than 10 million people, Shah said.
"Much needs to be done if you look at the air quality trend in
cities of Manila, Jakarta, Dhaka. It's not getting any better,"
he said.
Vehicle makers have been trying to tackle the root of the
problem by creating low- and zero-emission vehicles.
DaimlerChrysler, which previewed a working model of its zero-
emission car at the conference, expects its new vehicles to land
in selected customers' hands in California, Germany, Singapore
and Tokyo in 2004.
The hydrogen fuel cell uses compressed hydrogen gas and oxygen
to produce electricity to power the car and water as the
emission.
But full commercialization of the car will not take place
until 2010, Dr Ferdinand Panik, a DaimlerChrysler vice president
and head of the fuel cell project, told Reuters.
"To make something of the technology, to get feedback from the
field, to stimulate the introduction of this (car) or the
building up of this infrastructure -- all these things have to go
in parallel," Panik said.
Building up the facilities to refuel the cars with compressed
hydrogen gas will pose a major challenge, he said.
DaimlerChrysler's fuel cell car generates 75 kilowatts of
power, enough to run 15 households, hits top speeds of 140 km per
hour and runs for about 200 km on one charge. But it takes up to
three minutes to warm up.
Tech-savvy Singapore hopes to drive the adoption of such cars,
announcing initiatives to push the private and public sectors
together and become a test bed for green vehicle technology.
"This program...may eventually go beyond transport
applications to include stationary power and other energy
applications," Communications and Information Technology Minister
Yeo Cheow Tong said in a speech to the conference.