GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS ANALYSIS IN CURITIBA’S PUBLIC TRANSPORT: BRAZILIAN HYBRID BUSES AND SUSTAINABILITY

Resumo

The public transport mode is one of the major contributors to increasing discharge of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GGEs). This research highlights the strategic importance of renewable technologies in bus public transport in Curitiba’s city, south of Brazil. The country signed the first United Nations Framework Convention Climate Change in 1992, and Curitiba supported this vision of sustainability since years 1970, when the City Hall created exclusive bus corridors and an integrated transport network. In Curitiba’s city, in 2012, there was the inclusion of 30 called “hybrid buses” (hibribus) in the city's public transport fleet with an electric motor and biodiesel cycle engine, operating on diesel fuel and biodiesel fuel. The paper presents an inventory of GGEs comparing emissions of 30 buses with hybrid technology (biofuel and hydroelectric power) and diesel buses. To compare parameters among the three fuel bus types showed that such improvement actions of Curitiba’s city could tackle the problem of environmental aspects related to low emissions level, climate change, contributing to reduce fuel emissions, recovering principles of urban sustainability, equity and mitigating health risks. The voluntary and political mitigation actions increase the confidence in the multilateral response of international sustainable development goals.