Impactar Tool: Valuing Air Quality Health Impacts of Urban Bus Fleet Changes in Brazil (2022)

Abstract

In Brazil, where the transport sector is one of the biggest contributors to air pollution in cities, replacing conventional buses with electric vehicles can save lives and positively impact the economy. This is what ImpactAr tool, a technical note and a valuation model, demonstrates. Developed in partnership with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), ImpactAr provides the magnitude of the variations on the number of fatalities and hospitalizations and the consequent economic and welfare costs related to changes in air pollution levels caused by modifications in the Brazilian urban bus fleets. The methodology can be applied by any city, sector operators, academics and researchers. For São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Niterói, spreadsheets are already set up with data for environmental, epidemiological and economic projections. By making the implicit impacts on health and well-being of air pollution visible, ImpactAr can encourage cities to initiate or accelerate the transition from public transport to green fleets.