Gyeonggi Province to Convert All Municipal Buses to Eco-Friendly Vehicles

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Kim Gap-dong] Gyeonggi Province announced a "carbon-neutral action plan through eco-friendly bus conversion," which aims to convert all municipal buses to eco-friendly vehicles by 2033 as part of the "Gyeonggi RE100" transportation policy.

According to the provincial plan announced on the 15th, of the 10,900 municipal buses operating throughout Gyeonggi Province, 8,131 buses, or 76%, operate on diesel and CNG (natural gas) fuel, which is recognized as a significant factor in greenhouse gas emissions.

The province plans to sequentially replace all vehicles with eco-friendly buses over the next nine years as their service life expires. In particular, it intends to accelerate the conversion of 3,548 buses not subject to carbon reduction regulations from the Ministry of Environment through financial investment.

Based on the Korean Environmental Institute's "Guidelines for Applying Reduction Units by Local Government Greenhouse Gas Reduction Projects (June 2022)," if all 10,900 CNG buses are converted to electric buses, approximately 436,000 tons of CO2 eq annually can be reduced (40 tons of CO2 eq per bus). This is equivalent to the effect of planting 3.12 million pine trees every year.

Additionally, the province plans to actively utilize the carbon emissions trading system in the public bus-to-electric bus conversion policy. The carbon emissions trading system allows the government to allocate carbon emissions limits to companies in advance, and if actual emissions are lower than the allocation, emission rights can be traded on the exchange. However, bus operators and public institutions have shown very low interest so far. Therefore, the province will provide administrative support to enable bus operators to actively implement the procedures for applying for, certifying, and selling carbon emission credits obtained through electric bus conversion.

The 3,548 unregulated buses can acquire carbon emission credits, and it is estimated that sales of these credits will generate total revenue of 7.1 billion won (3,548 buses × 2 million won). As bus operators' revenue increases, the public bus financial support paid by Gyeonggi Province to bus operators (which compensates for deficits excluding transportation revenues) will also be reduced.

Kim Sang-su, head of the Provincial Transportation Bureau, said "Going beyond this eco-friendly bus conversion plan, we will pursue carbon-neutral policies in various ways, including expanding hydrogen buses and economical operation of public buses. We will also actively seek various ways to reduce public finances, not just from fare revenues, by capitalizing on the revenue generation from carbon emission credit sales."