APPRAISNG THE PROSPECTS AND SCENARIO OF LOW CARBON ENERGY TRANSITION FOR ROAD TRANSPORT SECTOR IN MAIDUGURI METROPOLIS

Abstract

Climate change mitigation requires a transition to clean and sustainable transport system. This paper evaluates the potentials for the adoption of low carbon vehicles (LCVs) in the road transport sector in Nigeria, with Maiduguri Metropolis as the case study. Five regular LCV options were chosen, namely; Biofuel, Battery Electric, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) vehicles. Primary data were collected through interviews with various relevant actors (government, industry, markets, etc.) in the road transport sector. The questions were structured in such a way that different possible economic conditions of LCVs existed in terms of cost, in relation to the conventional ICE Fossil Fuel Vehicles (FFVs). The LCVs’ operating costs were indexed against gasoline FFV, using different cost combinations. The result shows that the lower the initial purchase costs of LCVs in relation to the FFVs, the higher the tendency for their adoption and vice versa. With the right policy in place, the likely LCV alternative to emerge is either CNG or LPG vehicles through a de-alignment/re-alignment scenario.