UN-Habitat summons for increase in green vehicles in African continent

A UN-Habitat official has recently urged the African governments to take a strong stand through policy to enhance access to green vehicles.

"The uptake of e-mobility is small but the prospects are positive in the sense that green vehicles are a new a product in the market," Vincent Kitio, chief urban energy unit at UN-Habitat, said during the first UN-Habitat assembly that ends on Friday.

Kitio said that emissions from the transport sector are a significant contributor to climate change. "So making the switch to green vehicles will put Africa on the path towards a low carbon development pathway," he added, as reported by Xinhua.

He observed that a number of African countries have in the recent past opened up new automobile manufacturing plants but unfortunately most of them are for fossil fuel based cars.

"My message to African governments is that local manufacturing is critical because it provides employment opportunities and reduces imports of used vehicles but there is a need to quickly transit to green vehicles," he added.

The UN official further said that Europe has plans to stop the manufacture of fossil fuel based vehicles and Africa should also take steps to do the same. Kitio opined that e-vehicles have many advantages over conventional vehicles because they have fewer parts and don't require service every two to three months, Xinhua noted.

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