WWF Nepal, PRC, NEFEJ discuss opportunities, challenges of promoting public EVs

KATHMANDU: WWF Nepal, Prakriti Resources Centre (PRC) and Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) jointly organised an energy policy dialogue, on June 27. The programme was organised to discuss the opportunities and challenges of promoting public EVs in Nepal. Speaking at the programme, senior divisional sub-engineer Shankar Dhami at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT) said the government has announced to replace light vehicles that run on petroleum products with EVs by 2031. To achieve this target, the government is planning to put forward different policies to discourage the use of fossil fuel vehicles and increase the use of EVs. However, there is no dedicated sector in the ministry to promote EVs, Dhami said and added the government has proceeded with formulating laws for the electrical transformation of vehicles. Bhushan Tuladhar, Board Member of Sajha Yatayat said, "There is no alternative to the replacement of the existing vehicles with EVs," and added that all the stakeholders should put effort into the transformation of fuel-based vehicles to the vehicles that use renewable energy. This will help in the transformation of society, he expressed his belief. Speaking at the programme, the chairman of the Nepal Electric Vehicle Transport Association, Shankar Prasad Pokhrel, said, it will be difficult to transform heavy and medium vehicles at present due to huge investment in them. However, private and small vehicles could immediately go for the transformation. Likewise, Anantaa Pandey, Energy Programme Officer at Global Green Growth Institute, said the government should also focus on vehicles rather than physical infrastructure development. She suggested replacing the existing vehicles with EVS after studying and analysing data. Moreover, she suggested the government utilise the pollution tax on pollution control. Various stakeholders, experts, chief security officers (CSOs), and journalists participated in the dialogue. READ ALSO:

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