Context
Papua New Guinea’s economic development will require considerable growth in the coverage and quality of its state transport network. The total road network is 30 000 kilometers, of which 8460 km are state roads. Only 28% of the 8460 km of state roads were in a good condition as noted in 2010. A comprehensive program of rehabilitating existing roads and constructing new roads would expand the state road network to 25 000 km by 2035.
It is expected that with the expansion of state road network and urbanization, the use of land transport will increase substantially resulting in the increased number of vehicles on road. The number of vehicles is expected to increase from approximately 155,000 in 2005 to more than 600,000 in 2030. It is also estimated that the demand for transportation fuel which is fossil fuel-based in PNG could increase by a factor of three or four, resulting in emissions increasing from 1.6–2.4 to 3.3–4.5 Mt CO2e by 2030.
Besides, GHG emissions from the land transport sector will result into congestions on road and adverse impacts on health due to tailpipe emissions. Moreover, the land transport infrastructure will be vulnerable to the rising sea levels and coastal flooding, increased rainfall intensity, frequency and inland flooding.
The rapid development of electric and hybrid vehicle technology at a global level offers an opportunity to PNG to deploy electric vehicles. With the target of increasing the share of renewable energy as the source of electricity under NDC of PNG, the deployment of electric vehicles is promising. The deployment of electric vehicles would result in a substantial drop in oil consumption and offer a reduction of 22% in emissions in 2035.
CTCN Support
To conduct market analysis to introduce and promote low carbon transport, complemented with policy, implementation roadmap, feasibility study and capacity building on electric vehicles.
Expected Results
The technical assistance will help in conducting a market analysis for the promotion and implementation of low carbon transport through electric vehicles. The outcome of the market analysis will be used to develop a draft policy and a roadmap of action plans for the implementation, from which selected action plans will be undertaken for feasibility study like electrification of the fleet of buses and supporting infrastructure in PNG. The technical assistance will adopt a value chain approach with special attention, made on augmenting the grid with an adequate amount of renewable energy and battery management, at end of batteries’ life.
