Trends and Mitigation Options of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Road Transport Sector in Ecuador

This paper reports the current status of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by the transport sector in Ecuador and possible mitigation scenarios to reduce them. In the first case, the emissions were quantified by using the IPCC methodology for National GHG Inventories which is based in the quantification of the oil products consumption (TIER 1). The emission estimations have revealed that nearly 33,400 kton CO₂-Eq were emitted in 2012. The same year, road transport was identified as the most important sub-sector in terms of CO₂ emissions with a contribution of 90%. Road transport emission is followed by aviation and navigation, both not exceeding 10% of emissions within the transport sub-sector. These pollution trends have grown at a rate of about 6% (referred to ton of CO₂-Eq.). As consequence, several initiatives and research projects have been undertaken with the aim of finding solutions to the current situation in the transport sector. Secondly, an analysis of GHG emissions trends was performed (according to the business as usual scenario) based on historical GHG emission inventoriesupdated to the year 2012. This analysis was designed using the software Long-range Energy Alternative Planning (LEAP). For this purpose, Governmental strategies including measures related to fuel consumption, use of new technologies, political actions such as scrappingof the vehicle that have completed their life cycle, the introduction of hybrid and electric automobiles were considered. Preliminary results of the analysis indicate that political actions like scrappingvehicles and the use of biofuels are the most promising solutions to reduce rising trends of emissions and energy consumption.