Clean Air Law: 10 years after
In 2009, the city of Makati rolled out e-jeeps on its streets, a move meant to address the problem of emissions. China, too, has started to use more e-bikes, as it struggles to improve air quality in its environs.
Clearly, the age of hybrid and 100 percent electric vehicles is upon us.
As climate change risks grow, it is critical for governments to take decisive action in ensuring the quality of air that its people would breathe.
The government, for instance, has enacted the Clean Air Act into law - a landmark legislation to put in place a comprehensive air quality management policy and program for the Philippines. The law predisposes guidelines and practices that would mitigate and control air pollution in the country.
Despite the passage of this law, pollution levels remain in excess of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) threshold of 90 micrograms of pollutants per cubic meter. Also in 2009, the stretch of EDSA alone registered the dirtiest air with 282 micrograms per cubic meter, followed by Valenzuela City with 156 micrograms and the National Printing Office area in Quezon City with 144 micrograms. Pollutants include sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and carbon monoxide (CO).
Clearly, the Clean Air Law – while realizing improvements in the country’s air quality - has yet to fully address a significant source of the air pollution problem: the transportation sector, whose usage of fossil fuels brings about the pollutants that cause health problems. For a long time, the absence of alternative engines limited governments to palliative measures but now, their options are growing. As new and cleaner technologies are found to be effective, it is important for governments to find ways to use these to ensure air quality.
While hybrid vehicles hold very optimistic prospects for local transportation, the internal-combustion engine will remain the dominant technology over the next 20 years, according to Dr. Bernd Bohr, chairman of the Bosch Automotive Group in Germany. The company is engaged in reducing CO2 emissions of up to one third in both diesel and gasoline engines as well as developing the Electromobility concept which is the groundwork for an economically-viable electric car in the future; one that is free of emissions and independent of fossil fuel.
Technologies to limit pollution have also come into the market, and it is important for government to make use of these to enforce standards set under the Clean Air Act. Bosch foresees the need for reliable diagnostics (emission) analyzers in nationwide emission test centers in order to avoid irregularities from one outlet to another.
"There is also a need for reliable and accurate opacimeters for diesel vehicles, which comprise about 65 percent of the country’s total car population. A 60-70 percent opacity (i.e: visibility through smoke) for diesel emissions is an acceptable range," said Frederick Velasquez, Bosch Philippines technical support and service Officer. He specializes in vehicle diagnostics at the company’s Philippine Automotive Technical Training Center.
"Developing and educating the market is vital to addressing the problem of pollution," said Velasquez. Along with educating concerned sectors about clean vehicle emissions also comes the need to develop the market and gear it towards high-quality, energy-saving technologies and efficient combustion.
Bosch provides some of the cleanest technologies that drivers can use. It has a technical partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), which runs certificate courses for auto mechanics and educates them on the use of cleaner technologies.