CALAC+ supports governments to take action to reduce the emissions generated by the transport sector (low sulfur diesel buses, natural gas, electric vehicles, and others) and off-road mobile machinery (construction sector), by using the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) tool that facilitates the processing of different scenarios. This allows the authorities to implement appropriate measures, relying on the fact that the future costs and benefits will be greater than the investment costs.
The analysis takes into account the cost of implementing the regulations, including maintenance work for technological improvements to meet current standards. Furthermore, it shows the positive effects on the environment and the health of the population. In addition, there are savings in fuel consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The programme Climate and Clean Air Project in Latin American Cities (CALAC+) has developed three tools to assess emission reduction strategies and plans under the cost-benefit method. Although they are currently only available to the governments of the cities that the programme covers (Bogotá, Santiago de Chile, Lima, Mexico City). In the future, they will be adapted to be available to the general public on the programme's website.
This tool assesses the benefits and effects of changes in air quality on the environment and human health. For example, it analyses the effects on particulate matter concentrations in the environment and other metrics related to life expectancy.
This tool analyses the economic and environmental impacts of the emission standards introduced for agricultural and construction machinery. It allows the calculation of emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases, for example from a public vehicle fleet, and performs simulations with different scenarios of fleet growth and predicted emissions up to the year 2050.
This tool examines the results of the transition to the new EURO 6 emission standards for new technologies, taking into account electric vehicles and energy labels. This will allow government stakeholders to calculate the emitted pollutants of light, medium and commercial vehicles and better assess the impact on people, the economy, and the environment.
The air quality analysis tool (HEBASH) is integrated in both the emission standards analysis tool (HEMAQ) and the HETRANS tool. This allows for a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts.
CALAC+ is a programme of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and is implemented by Swisscontact.