A National Appropriate Mitigation Action for Public Transportation in Belize

The United Nations Development Programme, through the National Appropriate Mitigation Action for Belize, is meeting with public and private stakeholders to focus on public transportation. The idea is to improve the public transportation system in Belize with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by twenty percent by 2030. As it currently stands, members of the Belize Bus Owners Association are bringing in old buses that are not energy efficient. With a new transport master plan in the pipeline, there is need to revisit that system. Consultant Manford Stockmayer says that while all stakeholders are engaged, the concept of a revolving loan fund to support bus owners may be difficult to come by.

Manford Stockmayer

Manford Stockmayer, Consultant, UNDP

“When they bring in the bus, they look at the investment cost, but they don’t look at the operation cost. And we see that it would be financially viable to bring in better buses because they are saving he fuel, but the key question is the financing. So the proposal is to set up a revolving loan fund where they can get the financing to purchase more efficient buses, have lower cost of operations because the diesel cost goes down, maintenance goes down and then it is working. I think the government is strongly involved because that’s why we are here to discuss this NAMA, this National Appropriate Mitigation Action. It is driven by the climate change office. There is a very strong support also by the transport ministry because the transport master plan is being developed, which is not so much on the energy efficiency, but that’s where the NAMA has now come in to tackle that issue.”