Emissions Testing

In accordance with a number of mandates, Antigua and Barbuda is seeking to meet global emission standards.

And as Aisha Caleb details in this report, the Antigua and Barbuda Transport Board chaired by the Hon. Dean Jonas, has come up with a number of solutions in an effort to control emissions.

Emissions testing checks the levels of hazardous materials that escape from a motor vehicle with a combustion engine.

The goal of mandated emissions testing is to cut down on pollutants that are harmful to the environment, with particular focus on improving air quality.

Chairman of the Antigua and Barbuda Transport Board, the Hon. Dean Jonas, explains that this was one of the concerns lending to a suggestion to ban the importation of vehicles over five years. However, that plan has been shelved for the time being.

But as it relates to vehicles currently on the nation’s roads, Minister Jonas speaks on proposed plans

In the preliminary phase, he explains that equipment will deployed at the testing facility to test the vehicle emissions, in an effort to ensure that they are in accordance with the United Nation’s emission standards.

Minister Jonas continues that the Transport Board will be ensuring that Antigua and Barbuda is up to speed when it comes to emissions from vehicles.

In its Executive Summary as part of the United Nations Environment or UNEP Programme, the Emissions Gap Report 2013, it notes that the emissions gap in 2020 is the difference between emission levels in 2020 consistent with meeting climate targets, and levels expected in that year if country pledges and commitments are met.

The document adds that as it becomes less and less likely that the emissions gap will be closed by 2020, the world will have to rely on more difficult, costlier and riskier means after 2020, of keeping the global average temperature increase below 2° C.

If the emissions gap is not closed, or significantly narrowed by 2020, the door to many options limiting the temperature increase to 1.5° C at the end of this century will be closed.