Opportunities to Reduce Vehicle Emissions in Jakarta

Jakarta’s expanding fleet of motor vehicles is a key target of urgently needed actions to curb the city’s dangerous air pollution.1,2 This briefing paper highlights technologies and policies to reduce direct emissions from new and in-use cars, trucks, and buses in the city. Such policies, coupled with the promotion of mass transit, non-motorized transport, and other smart growth measures aimed at reducing transport demand, can significantly diminish the adverse effects of transportation on local air quality and public health in Jakarta, and spur similar actions across Indonesia. Several factors contribute to worsening pollution from motor vehicles in Jakarta. Emission standards for both cars and trucks are more lenient than in other Asian megacities, as are limits on gasoline and diesel sulfur content. Furthermore, even the lenient sulfur standards for diesel are not being met3, and the supply of compressed natural gas (CNG) has not been reliable enough to provide a dependable alternative for heavy-duty vehicles.4 Ideally, strict fuel quality and vehicle emission standards would be implemented nationally. This would create regulatory certainty: a single set of laws and regulations