Estimation of energy demand and carbon emissions for the road transport sector: A case study of Douala, Cameroon

Abstract

Road transport is one of the main causes of air pollution around the world. Nowadays, the notion of sustainable development is one of the major pillars for a healthy environment. However, faced with its major challenges, it is more than necessary and important to understand a set of elements which contribute to better understanding the level of planning for sustainable road transport. This study aims to estimate energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions, namely from road transport, for the city of Douala in Cameroon from 2010 to 2035. In order to achieve our objective, we used the Long range Energy Alternative Planning (LEAP) model. Based on the LEAP model, the estimates were evaluated based on three scenarios Business As Usual (BAU), Energy Optimization and Mitigation (EOM) and Sustainability Mobility (SM). The aim of this work was to identify suitable potential policies with a view to reducing energy consumption and emissions carbon dioxide () for road transport in Douala. The results tell us that the EOM and SM scenarios have advantages over the BAU scenario with the SM scenario being more optimistic than the other two scenarios. In addition, the SM scenario has a growth rate of 87.408 % in energy demand smaller than the other two scenarios BAU and EOM respectively 151.598 % and 132.073 %. We also note that the SM scenario contributed to a reduction of 60.661 kilo ton emissions of less than the BAU scenario. At present, with a view to reducing energy consumption and reducing carbon emissions, road vehicles in circulation in the city of Douala should emphasize structural optimization measures through the use of clean energy by promoting the use of biofuels in mass transport, eliminating old cars and finally considering improving energy efficiency through the implementation of technological development in the automobile sector. Policy makers must take this study into consideration in order to better integrate the notion of energy sustainable road transport.