Measuring The Invisible: Quantifying Emissions Reductions From Transport Solutions - Porto Alegre Case Study

Porto Alegre, a medium size city in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, is planning to implement a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor and a fare integration scheme to reduce the number of buses and terminals in the city center and to increase bus ridership. EMBARQ/WRI worked with local partners to estimate the impact of these two transport interventions on air pollutants and CO2 emissions.

The results show that the BRT system would reduce emissions by 25-31 thousand tones of CO2 per year, when compared to the business as usual scenario with fare integration, while the fare integration, if implemented on its own, may actually increase emissions. Further analysis shows that cleaner fuels and emission control technologies would have a significant impact if applied to fleets with high annual mileage, such as the municipal or the metropolitan bus fleets.