The UN Environmental Programme (Unep) will assist the five East African Community member states to put in place a clean diesel law by the end of 2013.

Unep’s head of transport unit Rob de Long said the law will allow the region to curb the rising pollution caused by transport. 

“All the member states have already agreed on a standard of 50 parts per million (ppm) of sulphur on diesel as part of measures to conserve the environment,” said Mr Long at a media round table at the Unep governing council meeting in Nairobi last week. 

According to the UN, vehicle emissions account for approximately 80 per cent of all pollution in the cities.

Long said that after the EAC passes the law, national parliaments will be given a grace period to ensure that they ratify it. He noted that the region currently imports diesel that has 500 ppm of the pollutant.

“Unfortunately, Kenya’s oil refinery, which caters for 50 per cent of the country’s diesel needs, produces diesel with 7,000 to 10,000 ppm of sulphur. This compares unfavourably with the standard in the developed world including Europe of 10 ppm,” said the Unep official adding that the organisation will also work with the government to help upgrade the refinery in order to help improve the air quality of Kenya.

“The world is now moving to low sulphur levels and therefore the facility will have to conform to global standards,” he noted. He said that Tanzania is ahead of the region and is in the process of gazetting the law.

Unep transport programme officer in charge of Africa Jane Akumu said her organisation will help in the sensitisation of the health and environmental benefits of cleaner air in Kenya. She noted that the growing middle class has resorted to buying personal vehicles to commute.

“At Unep, we hope the country develops a reliable and environmentally friendly public transport system that will help reduce the growing number of vehicles on the road and this will reduce pollution,” said Ms Akumu, adding the rest of the emission comes from domestic cooking and industries.

Meanwhile, Unep has announced a new strategic partnership with the private sector to facilitate a market shift towards energy-efficient, off-grid lighting and to reduce the estimated 74 million tonnes of annual carbon emissions from fuel-based light sources commonly used in developing countries.

The collaboration with the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (Gogla) will see the launch of an international effort to accelerate the deployment of enabling policies towards sustainable off-grid lighting.

The Unep-led Enlighten initiative has unveiled new national assessments for 80 countries on the economic and environmental gains that can be achieved through a shift to solar-powered alternatives.

The studies show that if Kenya, for example, replaced all fuel-based lighting with solar-powered light emitting diode (LED) systems, the costs would be repaid in only seven months, due to major fuel savings. 

Kenya currently spends around $900 million per year on off-grid lighting, and fuel-based light sources in the country are responsible for over 2.3  million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. 

“Replacing the world’s 670 million kerosene lamps with cleaner, safer solar-powered lighting represents a major opportunity to deliver across multiple fronts, from cuts in global carbon emissions, health risks from indoor air pollution, support for green technologies and the generation of green jobs,” said Unep executive director Achim Steiner.

The study shows that replacing the millions of kerosene lamps, candles and flashlights used worldwide with modern solar lighting can provide an increasingly low-cost solution to reducing carbon emissions, indoor air pollution and health risks, and boosting green jobs.