It is kinda ridiculous when I hear the government will stop importing second-hand cars in the name of climate change with no clear details. I went to my home town, Lospalos two weeks ago. Even the national road has improved, I barely encountered vehicle enroute in every 20 minutes. Another reality is, in remote villages, you cant even find any public transport. So the communities have to use their eleven transport (walking) to anywhere they need to. I cannot imagine, if only brand new cars allowed in this country, what it would be like.
I watched the statement of Secretary State of Environment saying that by working with the Ministry of Transport, they will make a policy to stop second-hand cars import. The objective of this policy is to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from motorized transport sector. It is, indeed, a fact that global motorized transport GHG emission is quite contributing to the global warming, but not our per capita emissions. I don't search numbers, but I am confident on my feeling that our transport GHG emission is negligible compared to other emission sources. For example, I heard that deforestation is the leading source of emissions in Timor-Leste.
I mean, doing something to tackle climate change does not have to be like what big countries are doing. The big countries whose roads are now crazily packed with cars stop importing certain ages of cars. And even some roads only allow certain types of transport such as electrical cars that have no emissions at all. We can work towards the same cause, but the efforts have to be adjusted into the local context.
Instead, there are some local issues that the government must work and focus on to reduce air pollutions in Dili city that in parallel will reduce transport GHG emissions. For example, what the government has done to sort out very old yellow taxies, mikrolet, dump trucks that are now sill in operation? what the government has done to develop public transport? infrastructure for people to walk? and good drainage system that reduce dust?
I think those are the classic and complex issues that are priority. We need to adjust our climate change mitigation or adaptation efforts into these contextual issues. I personally agree on the policy of reducing second-hand cars import, but the policy has to consider many aspects, realistic, and rational.
**hope this gives you an inspiration.
