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The impact of vehicle and fuel standards on premature mortality and emissions

The impact of vehicle and fuel standards on premature mortality and emissions

Without new actions to limit vehicle emissions, the health impacts from road transportation will increase significantly from present-day levels in many countries around the world. However, stringent limits on vehicle emissions can force the introduction of technologies that will cut emissions of local air pollutants by more than 99 percent over uncontrolled vehicles. This temporarily decouples conventional pollutant emissions from growing vehicle activity and dramatically reduces emissions that contribute to serious health problems. This report provides an ambitious but pragmatic policy roadmap for tightening standards for trucks and buses, passenger vehicles, and fuels, enabling regions without a clear timeline for advanced standards to replicate the success of early policy adopters in improving air quality and public health. The tools and analyses used in this study provide an integrated framework for rapid policy assessment that can be especially useful in developing regions where technical capacity and data are limited and where action is most urgently needed.

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