Used Vehicles and The Environment Report 2020 | UPSC

• The global fleet of light duty vehicles (LDVs) is set to at least double by 2050.

• Despite road accidents, air pollution, and climate change there are currently no regional or global agreements on the trade and flow in used vehicles.

EXPORTS

• The three largest exporters of used vehicles, the European Union (EU), Japan, and the United States of America (USA).
• These countries have exported 14 million used light duty vehicles (LDVs) worldwide between 2015 and 2018.

• The major destinations for used vehicles from the EU are West and North Africa.
• Japan exports mainly to Asia and East and Southern Africa and the USA mainly to the Middle East and Central America.

EXPORT TRENDS | Source : UNEP

IMPORTS

• Seventy per cent of exported LDVs head to developing countries.

• It is followed by Eastern Europe (24 per cent), Asia-Pacific (15 per cent), the Middle East (12 per cent) and Latin America (nine per cent).
• Nigeria, the largest importer of used cars in the world, has been importing cars that are over nine years old.

REPORT ANALYSIS

KEY CONCERNS

• Pollutant and climate emissions of used vehicles
• The quality and safety of used vehicles
• Energy consumption
• The costs to operate used vehicles.

NEED FOR REGULATION

• This trade needs to be supervised.
• Regulation is essential to ensure the quality of the vehicles and reduce (urban) air pollution and global climate emissions.

• Equally, few developed countries have restrictions on the export of used vehicles.
• Regulations can take many forms from complete import bans to age restrictions, fiscal incentives, labelling and awareness requirements.
• Regulations reduce imports of old and polluting used vehicles, and encourage the imports of cleaner used vehicles.

Current regulatory environment for used vehicles.| Source : UNEP

• Out of the 146 countries surveyed in the report, 18 have adopted a complete ban on the import of used vehicles.
• Few countries have adopted advanced vehicle emissions standards for used vehicles.

• Fiscal instruments can be an effective means to regulate the import of used vehicles.

• Some countries use selective bans, for example barring diesel vehicles above a certain age from city centres.
• Some countries have introduced mandatory labelling of used vehicles, to show consumers a vehicle’s fuel consumption and emissions.

GAP IN POLICY MEASURES

• The gap in policy measures between exporting and importing markets has led to a global trade in used vehicles.
• Used vehicles are a major contributor to air pollution and climate emissions in recipient countries.

• Most developing markets today import vehicles that would not be allowed to circulate on exporting country roads.

• About onethird (47 countries) have ‘good’ or ‘very good’ policies.

RESTRICTION ON IMPORTS

• The stricter an importing country is on regulating the import of used vehicles and associated technology, the cleaner is the vehicle technology.

• Road safety can also be improved.
• Some countries have been providing incentives for the import of used hybrid electric (HEV) and electric (EV) vehicles.
• Some countries which had banned the import of all used vehicles are now permitting used hybrid electric vehicles or all-electric vehicles.