Wondwossen Sintayehu and Charlotte Scott describe how the City of Addis Ababa is considering the use of electric buses in a bid to reduce air pollution overall. Such a development would reduce particulate pollution, which is harmful to local people's health, as well as reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. Addis Ababa, like many African cities, is rapidly urbanising and doubling in size every decade. Despite the city's relatively low motorisation rate, rapid economic growth has led to an increase in the rate of vehicle registration, indicative of the upsurge in the number of cars on the roads.
It is estimated that 2, premature deaths per year in Addis Ababa are due to exposure to poor air quality. These particles are small enough to be inhaled and are acutely dangerous because they can penetrate and lodge deep inside the lungs. Studies from cities in Europe and the US suggest that there is a direct correlation between air pollution and higher death rates in people with Covid The research implies that people in polluted areas are more likely to die from the coronavirus than those living in cleaner areas, and that long-term exposure to NO2 may be an important contributor to fatality caused by Covid In response to these challenges, Ethiopia has turned its attention to shifting towards sustainable mass transit solutions.
Part of this involves investing in light rail transit LRT , bus rapid transit BRT systems and other mass transport services. The development of two BRT corridors is already underway with a total of 15 planned in the current Addis Ababa city master plan Battery-electric buses have huge local air quality and health benefits because they have zero tailpipe emissions - in addition to their potential benefits in reducing greenhouse gases from the transportation sector, overall.
C40 Cities recently undertook an analysis of the potential benefits of introducing electric buses into the planned BRT lines in Addis Ababa and identified significant benefits in terms of reduction in premature deaths; increase in life expectancy; reduction in hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and savings from healthcare costs.
Despite being more investment heavy, electric buses can lower the total cost of ownership over their lifespans due to large operational and maintenance savings. To support this ambition, the Addis Ababa Transport Bureau, partnered with the C40 City Solutions Platform , to facilitate collaboration with actors from the private, public, academic and NGO sectors, to develop scalable and tangible ideas and solutions to procure and deploy electric buses in the BRT corridors or alternate routes in Addis Ababa.
